REGULATION Complaints prompt EPA to delay mercury emissions controls

Abstract

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will postpone a portion of a controversial mercury and toxic air emissions regulation for coal-fired power plants. The delay will put off until March 2013 final requirements for new coal-fired power plants. The move specifically affects five units that are being planned and have challenged EPA’s regulation. When EPA published the final regulation last December, public attention was focused on some 1,100 existing coal-fired power plants, about 40% of which lack pollution controls, including those for mercury. EPA gave the plants four years to make the installations (C&EN, Jan. 2, page 10). These plants are not affected by EPA’s latest announcement. EPA will now “reconsider” and withdraw the regulation for new plants because of industry complaints and pending litigation, the agency says. The reconsideration will examine emissions monitoring, according to the agency, and will not affect the actual pollution controls required for ...