The U.S. EPA’s announcement of new standards for mercury, lead, arsenic and other air toxics from major coal and oil-fired power plants is, as David Roberts puts it, a really big deal.
Coal plants are the world’s largest sources of mercury and other toxics; burning coal is the biggest source of global warming pollution. Coal-fired power is flat-lining in the U.S., and hopefully with actions like the one on Wednesday we’ll see it decline. We are proud to have helped put the only two coal-fired power plants in Washington and Oregon on shut-down schedules.
The delay of these mercury standards (more than two decades in the making), exemplify the power of Big Coal to delay solutions that benefit both public health and our pocketbooks. These standards implement provisions in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments that were signed into law by President George W. Bush, and Big Coal has litigated and filibustered the standards ever since. Finally, these rules will protect countless people — especially children. They will also save billions of dollars in avoided health care costs and put thousands of people to work installing pollution controls for existing boilers and creating cleaner energy alternatives for the grid. That’s why groups representing more than 125,000 businesses signed a letter thanking the EPA and the White House for taking this action.
Needing a new market, Big Coal is attempting to wield its power once again, gunning to build the enormous coal export terminals in Washington and Oregon to get their coal to Asia. There are multiple proposals in play – if built two terminals would export up to 110 million tons of coal to Asia every year. Here in the Northwest, coal emissions from China are already the single biggest source of mercury pollution in our air and water. With increased coal-burning in Asia, that would be a lot more mercury and carbon pollution in our air.
If our elected leaders in WA and OR allow the terminals to be built, it would fly in the face of progress to protect public health from major industrial toxins like mercury, address climate change and build a clean-energy economy.
Let’s follow up this early Christmas present with a New Year’s Resolution: work together to clean up our energy grid at home while saying no to shipping coal across the Pacific.
