EPA Overturns 2024 Rule Regarding Mercury And Air Toxics Standards

Late last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rulemaking that determined the Biden administration’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for coal- and oil-fired power plants, issued in 2024, was not “necessary and appropriate” under the Clean Air Act. The EPA said standards that were adopted in 2012 already had achieved significant reductions in mercury and other hazardous air pollutants and, therefore, the additional compliance costs tied to the Biden-era MATS were not justified.

In a fact sheet, the EPA said it would instead continue to enforce the existing 2012 MATS rule requirements in order to ensure “the public health and the environment are protected without compromising America’s energy or economic prosperity.”

As noted above, EPA noted the 2012 MATS rule drove sharp reductions in harmful air toxic pollutants from coal-and oil-fired power plants. Specifically:

• 2021 mercury emissions from coal-fired Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units were 90 percent lower under the 2012 standards than under pre-MATS levels;
• Since 2010, acid gas hazardous air pollutant emissions have been reduced by more than 96 percent; and
• Emissions of the non-mercury metals, including nickel, arsenic, and lead, have been reduced by more than 81 percent.

Read more at this link.