On December 27, 2018, EPA issued a proposal to roll back the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) applied to coal- and oil-fired power plants by changing the way the federal government calculates the costs and benefits of dangerous air pollutants. The current MATS standards were authorized by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, and were designed to reduce emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) that endanger Americans, especially pregnant women, babies and children. When EPA created MATS, the agency’s own analysis determined it would save taxpayers as much as $90 billion in healthcare costs annually through reduced premature deaths, sick days and hospital visits. Against all evidence, the Trump Administration now proposes that it is not appropriate and necessary to regulate HAP emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants and has concluded that the residual risk to the public from mercury and other HAP emissions is “acceptable.”
On March 18, 2019, EPN Member Dave Coursen shared oral and written testimony critiquing the Trump Administration’s proposed revised supplemental cost finding for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards in a public hearing held by EPA in Washington, DC.
Testimony of Dave Coursen, former EPA Office of General Counsel