Greening Austin Daily

New EPA Mercury Standards Will Impact Texas Coal Plants

29th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

Last Wednesday the EPA issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the first mercury standards in the US.  Here’s an excerpt from the EPA announcement:

EPA estimates that the new safeguards will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year. The standards will also help America’s children grow up healthier – preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year.

“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,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “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.”

This will have a big affect on Texas, which has more coal plants than any other state. From CBS:

Texas environmentalists are cheering new federal standards announced Wednesday that will force coal- and oil-fired power plants to reduce mercury emissions and toxic pollutants or shut down. Power industry leaders, however, said the pricey changes could lead to layoffs and undo strain on the state’s grid.

Texas, which has 19 coal-fired power plants — more than any other state — and plans to build nine more, is among the few states still adding coal-fired plants. It also releases more air pollutants than any other state.

The new standards have an estimated price tag of $9.6 billion, ranking them among the most expensive in the Environmental Protection Agency’s history. The new rules were unveiled in Washington by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.

“This is big. Texans shouldn’t be living with the health risks of mercury and other pollutants,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of the Texas office of the consumer activist group Public Citizen.

“The only thing more shocking than the large amounts of toxic chemicals released into the air each year by coal and oil fired power plants is the fact that these emissions have been allowed for so many years,” added Ilan Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity Project.

According to Levin’s group, Texas is the nation’s top power plant mercury polluter, with its coal-fired power plants emitting 16.9 percent of the total U.S. mercury air emissions for 2010. The Department of State Health Services has issued fish consumption advisories for 300,000 acres of Texas lakes, according to advocacy group Environment Texas.

American Electric Power, the parent company of AEP Texas, has already spent $7 billion to reduce emissions since 1990 in the 11 states it serves, said Gary Gibbs, AEP Texas’ manager of environmental and governmental affairs.

He said the company isn’t opposing the new EPA regulations, but rather the time frame. Under the new rules, companies are given three years to decrease emissions of mercury and other toxins, and can apply for a fourth year to install equipment.