Environmental advocates were quick to praise the Environmental Protection Agency for releasing standards to reduce mercury and other pollutants emitted by powerplants. But industry groups say the final rule, issued Dec. 21, will force the early retirement of a number of coal plants and could cause electrical reliability problems as a result.
The EPA’s mercury and air toxic standards (MATS) will require the most heavily polluting powerplants to reduce emissions of mercury, arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium and cyanide within the next four years. The EPA says utilities can rely on “widely available, proven pollution controls that are already in use at more than half of the nation’s coal-fired powerplants.”