Trump's GOP-led EPA About to Eliminate Mercury Emissions Rules

When you put lobbyists in positions to make the rules in OUR government, this is what happened.  These are people who spent their career working to find loopholes, create new ones, and re-write the rules to help private companies to make money.  They paid off congress, cabinet, and others to get their way.  Now they are the government employees making the rules.

The Trump administration has completed a detailed legal proposal to dramatically weaken a major environmental regulation covering mercury, a toxic chemical emitted from coal-burning power plants....

The proposal...is designed to put in place the legal justification for the Trump administration to weaken it and several other pollution rules, while setting the stage for a possible full repeal of the rule.

Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who is now the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected in the coming days to send the proposal to the White House for approval.

Polluters, who ruin the one Earth we have FOREVER, want these rule changes because it'll make them more money.  It'll make us sicker, literally kill us, but they'll get richer. It's that simple.  HOW IS THIS ALLOWED?

The move is the latest, and one of the most significant, in the Trump administration’s steady march of rollbacks of Obama-era health and environmental regulations on polluting industries, particularly coal. The weakening of the mercury rule — which the E.P.A. considers the most expensive clean air regulation ever put forth in terms of annual cost to industry — would represent a major victory for the coal industry.

....a victory for Mr. Wheeler’s former boss, Robert E. Murray, the chief executive of the Murray Energy Corporation, one of the nation’s largest coal companies.  Murray, who was a major donor to Trump’s inauguration fund, personally requested the rollback of the mercury rule....in a written “wish list” he handed to Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

SERIOUSLY!

This is sickening....literally..... why does mercury emission matter? 

Mercury is known to damage the nervous systems of children and fetuses....reducing mercury brings up to $6 billion annually in health benefits

“This is a sweeping attack on considering the benefits of cutting hazardous pollution from coal plants,” said John Walke, a legal expert on the Clean Air Act with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group that expects to take a lead role in the legal effort to uphold the mercury standard. “This is the first legal step toward eliminating the standard entirely.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/climate/epa-trump-mercury-rule.html