First national standard on mercury set by EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued the first national set of rules on mercury pollution from power plants.
The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards also will address arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium, and cyanide emissions released through smokestacks.
The EPA expects the toxins to be decreased through the use of pollution controls that are currently in place at more than half the country’s coal plants. The new rules will call for the remaining plants to install comparable equipment to cut emissions.
Coal and oil-fired power plants have been targeted for the new regulations because they are the leading emitters of mercury, acid gases and other toxic metals, the EPA says. Some 40 percent of electrical generation comes from coal-fired plants, according to the U.S. Energy Administration, but only 1 percent from oil.
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