The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday announced new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for the nation's coal- and oil-burning power plants.
The standards are designed to protect people from mercury, arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium and cyanide emitted from power plants, according to a news release from the EPA.
A document released by the EPA on Wednesday showed the new rule affects 16 coal-fired plants, ranging in size from the 2,900-megawatt John E. Amos plant to Putnam County to the 74-megawatt North Branch plant in Grant County. Some, such as Amos, are covered by the new rule but are already in compliance.
The EPA maintains that the new standards are necessary to save lives.
"By cutting emissions that are linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses like asthma, these standards represent a major victory for clean air and public health — and especially for the health of our children. With these standards that were two decades in the making, EPA is rounding out a year of incredible progress on clean air in America with another action that will benefit the American people for years to come," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in the news release.
"The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will protect millions of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs of compliance."
Jackson was scheduled to announce more details during a 2 p.m. at Children's Medical Center in Washington, D.C., according to a news release from the EPA.
The MATS rule — also known as the Hazardous Air Pollutants rule for utilities and the Utility Maximum Available Control Technology rule — establishes the first national standards to limit toxic air emissions from power plants, mainly mercury, fine particulates and acid gases.
Mercury is a neurotoxin to which fetuses and children are particularly susceptible, while other targeted emissions cause cancer, chronic and acute respiratory disorders and other illnesses.
The agency estimates health benefits of up to $9 for every dollar spent to reduce power plant pollution. Benefits are realized primarily through as many as 11,000 premature deaths avoided but also through the avoidance of non-fatal heart attacks, cases of respiratory illness including aggravated asthma and acute and chronic bronchitis, and hundreds of thousands of days of missed work, according to the EPA.
Based on the draft rule and other environmental rules expected or already out, utilities have said they would close some plants that are too small and old to merit expensive retrofits. More than 30 plants in a dozen states likely will be retired and another 34 may retire, according to an Associated Press survey that was based on the requirements in the proposed rule and reported on Dec. 19.
In West Virginia, AEP has said it expects this rule, primarily, along with other EPA regulations to lead to the closure of its Philip Sporn plant in Mason County, Kanawha River plant in Kanawha County and Kammer in Marshall County. Those amount to 2,200 megawatts of coal-fired generating capacity that is old and has not been upgraded with environmental controls — 12 percent of the state's generating capacity but only about one-tenth of one percent of generation in 2010.
FirstEnergy has not yet announced its plans.
"We would need some time to evaluate what the final rules are and how they might impact our operations," said FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin. "At this time, no final decisions have been made on the future of our fossil generating plants."
A state regulator has suggested that FirstEnergy's small, old Albright, Rivesville and Willow Island plants may be retired. Those total about 600 megawatts of capacity and represented much less than one-tenth of 1 percent of generation in 2010.
Utilities, regulators and electric trade organizations have raised concerns that the combined capacity of expected plant retirements and the tight timeline for compliance could lead to reliability problems.
The AP concluded after its survey that concern likely is overblown; however, the EPA provided in its final rule for increased compliance flexibility to a fourth year for technology installations and further flexibility for localized reliability problems.
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