EPA guts rule credited with cleaning up coal-plant toxic air
Source: AP
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration on Thursday gutted an Obama-era rule that compelled the countrys coal plants to cut back emissions of mercury and other human health hazards, a move designed to limit future regulation of air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants.
Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler said the rollback was reversing what he depicted as regulatory overreach by the Obama administration. We have put in place an honest accounting method that balances the cost to utilities with public safety, he said.
Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist whose previous clients have gotten many of the regulatory rollbacks they sought from the Trump administration.
Environmental and public health groups and Democratic lawmakers faulted the administration for pressing forward with a series of rollbacks easing pollution rules for industry in the final six months of President Donald Trumps current term while the coronavirus pandemic rivets the worlds attention.
FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2018, file photo, a coal-fired plant in Winfield, W.Va, is seen from an apartment complex in the town of Poca across the Kanawha River. The Trump administration is gutting an Obama-era rule that compelled coal plants to cut back emissions of mercury and other human health hazards, limiting future regulation of air pollutants by petroleum and coal plants. (AP Photo/John Raby, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/f335db392caae2729636b01910f4055a
machoneman
(4,007 posts)lobbied the Orangeanus to make this change will rue the day under our new President. To even the score, Biden should eliminate the use of coal, seize the mines and jail the owners while awating trial.
howardmappel
(80 posts)I agree about reversing the EPA decision, but the free market is going to kill the coal using energy plants and the coal mines -- much sooner than later.
kimbutgar
(21,157 posts)But I sense a karmic payback in the future.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)they can get their filthy evil hands on.
I hope the Biden people are keeping a tally so they can work on repairing all the damage after anus-mouth is gone.
riversedge
(70,242 posts)scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Not just the environmental stuff, but the whole structure of the government.
So much destruction.
Me.
(35,454 posts)Covid has taken over the EPA's job.