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The Trump administration EPA says regulations to reduce power plant emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants are too costly and should no longer be considered legally "appropriate and necessary."
In another proposed reversal of an Obama-era standard, the Environmental Protection Agency Friday said limiting mercury and other toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants is not cost-effective and should not be considered "appropriate and necessary."
The EPA says it is keeping the 2012 restrictions in place for now, in large part because utilities have already spent billions to comply with them. But environmental groups worry the move is a step toward repealing the limits and could make it harder to impose other regulations in the future.
In a statement, the EPA said it is "providing regulatory certainty by transparently and accurately taking account of both costs and benefits."
The National Mining Association welcomed the move, calling the mercury limits "punitive" and "massively unbalanced."
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 30 2018, @06:04PM (7 children)
The only nation I'm aware of today that might create a smog like that, would be China. On the page you linked to, the Battersea station is pictured, in 2012. From that photo, you wouldn't know that they are burning coal. Even in the '70's we were busily cleaning up our coal plants. Penn Power's West Pittsburgh plant dumped soot across many square miles of land on bad days. On better days, housewives in West Pittsburgh simply could not hand laundry out, because it would be black before it got dry. I'm not sure what the dates were now, but by about 71, maybe 72, Penn Power installed new stacks with scrubbers. When the plant was reopened, those literal tons of soot were transformed into columns of vapor, and that vapor wasn't even visible sometimes.
I don't intend to minimize the pollution that industry generates, but I do tend to agree with Trump, in that EPA's mandates don't always make sense. There has also been a long running battle from various sectors, in that EPA mandates should consider affordability.
Coal stack emissions, for instance. The original mandates were expensive, but affordable. The soot removed from the emissions was WAY over 99% - you would have to carry the decimal point way out beyond the trillions. It made sense. At some point, further mandates make no sense though. The expense gets so high, no one can afford to run the plant!
If gubbermint decides that we will burn no more coal, well, they probably have that right. But, the EPA doesn't have that right, or authority. It's not right that they just arbitrarily increase the cost of doing business, until no one is doing business any longer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday December 30 2018, @06:30PM (2 children)
I basically just posted it 'because': it's an interesting read, and an interesting 'solve' that China will probably have to go through eventually: i get the feeling their soil is more polluted even than their air.
I just wish people were smarter: we have too many people in this world who think the dollar is more important than people and i wish things were different.
But they're not.
By the way: have you given the keys to the kingdom back yet? :)
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=29377&page=1&cid=779966#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 30 2018, @07:23PM (1 child)
NEVER!! I'll melt them down for the gold first!
(Score: 2, Touché) by redneckmother on Sunday December 30 2018, @08:39PM
Watch out for mercury contaminants.
:-)
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday December 30 2018, @06:36PM (3 children)
You would not know that they were burning coal because they were not. The Battersea power station closed in the '80s. It's an iconic listed building and is now being redeveloped for retail and offices.
https://batterseapowerstation.co.uk/ [batterseapowerstation.co.uk]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 30 2018, @07:24PM
That's some clean, clean coal!!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 30 2018, @08:12PM (1 child)
OK, let me set my smartassery aside. For whatever reason, I decided to take a close up of Battersea through Google earth. It looks pretty awesome, really. I think it a bit humorous that they guy who designed the power station is the same guy who designed the red telephone box - lots of similarities there, right?
From there, I passed through Wikipedia, and hit a couple other short articles. That's one heck of a landmark!
Thanks for mentioning it, whoever.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday December 30 2018, @08:55PM
Here is another image of Battersea power station. You might be familiar with it if you are a Pink Floyd fan:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Pink_Floyd-Animals-Frontal.jpg [wikimedia.org]