United States: EPA Finalizes Nation's First Mercury Standard

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has officially issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants - the first standard of its kind in the nation's history.

In March, 20 years after Congress mandated the EPA to establish standards to regulate toxic air pollutants, the Agency proposed MATS. Under the new standard coal and oil-fired power plants will be required to install pollution controls to cut not only mercury emissions but also arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases. The first year of compliance for MATS is 2015, giving utilities and power generators three years to retrofit or shut down power plants.

In the nine months between the proposal of the standards until the implementation on Wednesday MATS has been the center of  heated debate. Power generators, utilities, the coal industry, trade organizations have called the standards an attack on the coal industry which they claim will result in the loss of jobs and create an energy crisis as power plants will be forced to close. Aside from the cost of implementing pollution controls there is a claim that the three year time frame is too short and "unrealistic".

However, a report released two weeks ago by the Department of Energy, supported the EPA's time frame and refutes the claim that the new rule will create a power inadequacy. “Our review, combined with several other studies, demonstrate that new EPA rules – which will provide extensive public health protections from an array of harmful pollutants – should not create resource adequacy issues," said David Sandalow, Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs.

In its announcement the EPA addressed these concerns stating:

EPA is not only providing the standard three years for compliance, but also encouraging permitting authorities to make a fourth year broadly available for technology installations, and if still more time is needed, providing a well-defined pathway to address any localized reliability problems should they arise.

Still, large utilities have already begun to follow through on promises of plant closures.  Duke Energy and Ameren Corporation have both announced plans to shut down coal-fired power plants in anticipation of having to meet MATS claiming the cost of retrofits have forced their hand.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson stood her ground Wednesday maintaining MATS "will protect millions of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs of compliance."

It took just hours after Jackson took the podium to announce the first-of-kind standards for responses to hit the media.

Steve Miller, President and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity blasted the EPA's action predicting the MATS will "likely be the most expensive rule ever imposed on coal-fueled power plants" and implored Congress to "step in".

“The EPA is out of touch with the hard reality facing American families and businesses. This latest rule will destroy jobs, raise the cost of energy and could even make electricity less reliable," said Miller.

The new rule also quickly received praise and support. Heather Sage, vice president of PennFuture, called the announcement a "great holiday present" saying that Pennsylvanians have "much to gain" as result of MATS.

She noted, "Pennsylvania has the nation's second-largest amount of mercury pollution, with two coal-fired power plants, Keystone in Armstrong County and Conemaugh in Indiana County, among the top 25 mercury polluters in the country."

Perhaps not a great holiday present for utilities and the coal industry that will not only begin preparing to comply with MATS but will also be scrambling to comply with EPA's recently implemented Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). CSAPR requires 27 states in the eastern half of the country to reduce power plant emissions. Beginning January 2012, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOX) emission reductions will take effect.

Image Credit: iagoarchangel via Flickr.