Environmental PROTECTION Agency to Allow MORE DEADLY POLLUTION by Gutting Two Regulations

Smart Dissent was hoping to make our last 2018 post a positive one but that's not going to be the case.  Instead, let's make sure everyone is aware of what the relatively scandal-free Andrew Wheeler is doing to elminate as many environmental protections as possible while running the Environmental PROTECTION Agency. 

During his first year in office, Trump signed executive orders declaring his intention to dismantle environmental rules. As his second year comes to a close, agencies have set the regulatory wheels in motion to weaken or repeal nearly a dozen Obama-era restrictions on air and water pollution or planet-warming emissions of carbon dioxide, including a plan to reduce the number of waterways that are protected from pollutants and another making it easier for utilities to build new coal plants.

There are two major rule changes to note here that are a very big deal.  First:

The Trump administration Friday [12/28/18] announced a plan designed to make it easier for coal-fired power plants, after nearly a decade of restrictions, to once again release mercury and other pollutants linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses into the atmosphere.

The limits on mercury, set in 2011... to restrict some of the most hazardous pollutants emitted by coal plants.... Since then, scientists have said, mercury pollution from power plants has declined more than 80 percent nationwide.

The original rule required power plants to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants by more than 90 percent over five years. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can damage the brain and nervous system in young children, leading to lower I.Q. and impaired motor skills.... the measure would prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths from asthma, other respiratory diseases or heart attacks.

....represents a victory for the coal industry, and in particular for Robert Murray, an important former client of Andrew Wheeler’s from his days as a lobbyist. Mr. Murray, the chief executive of Murray Energy Corporation, personally requested the rollback of the mercury rule soon after Trump took office.

REPUBLICANS RUNNING THE EPA ARE SAYING IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE TO SAVE YOUR LIFE SO THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO.  That last sentence literally is the definition of The Swamp.  Wheeler is a climate change denier and until last year worked as a lobbyist for one of the country’s most influential coal executives.  Now he gets to run the show and end important rules that keep all human beings safer.

Second:

Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday [12/6/18] proposed gutting an Obama-era rule requiring coal-fired power plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, defying increasingly desperate international negotiations to scale down planet-warming gases.

The proposal would allow new coal plants to emit up to 1,900 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of electricity, up from the 1,400-pound limit under the existing 2015 rule. It’s a last-ditch effort to halt the continued closures of coal plants. Three more coal-fired power stations announced plans to shut down in October alone, adding to the 17,000 megawatts of coal-plant capacity that retired between January 2017 and June 2018....

....marks yet another brazen attempt by the Trump administration to bolster coal.  Use of the most carbon-polluting source of electricity has plummeted over the past decade as natural gas became a cheaper option as the controversial drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, became more popular.

Carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of global warming, are expected to hit a record high this year, increasing 2.7 percent, according to a report released Wednesday.  That comes a year after emissions surged 1.6 percent, ending a three-year plateau.... the United States’ emissions rose 2.5 percent as oil use ticked upward.

Opposition and backlash to both moves is strong and intelligent, including from the coal industry itself!

The vast majority of utility companies, which estimate they have already spent about $18 billion installing clean-air technology since the rule was imposed, have said the proposed changes are now of little benefit to them and have urged the Trump administration to leave the measure in place.  “There is nobody who operates power plants who is asking for the rule to go away,” said Jeffrey R. Holmstead... who served as E.P.A. air chief under George W. Bush. 

In a fiery statement, a coalition of 15 public health groups, including the American Lung Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Medical Association, called the proposal “a major threat to the health of all Americans, particularly those most vulnerable.... Power plant pollution and climate change endangers the health of every American.... This latest attempt from the administration to give industry a license to pollute is irresponsible and illogical from both a health and economic perspective.”

Further thoughts on how scary these changes are relate to the domino effect they will cause:

“There is a likelihood that this rule-making will be the administration’s flagship effort to permanently change the way the federal government considers health benefits,” said Janet McCabe, who ran the E.P.A.’s air office under President Obama.

She said an overhaul of the mercury rule could result in utilities opting to no longer run pollution controls, despite having already installed them, because costs that are not federally mandated can no longer be passed on to ratepayers. “If that’s the case, we will see higher emissions of mercury, arsenic, acid gases and the particulate matters that are also captured along with those pollution controls,” Ms. McCabe said.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/epa-coal_us_5c096995e4b0b6cdaf5d16ba