By Maxine Joselow
The EPA seeks to prevent thousands of premature deaths from air pollution
The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday affirmed its authority to regulate emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from the power sector.
It's easy to frame Monday's move as an abstract regulatory decision by Washington bureaucrats. But it certainly has life-or-death implications for people who live near the billowing smokestacks of power plants.
That's because the proposal paves the way for stricter regulations limiting mercury, a potent neurotoxin that can harm babies' brain development, as well as fine particulate matter, which causes up to 11,000 premature deaths each year, according to a federal analysis completed during the Obama administration.
“A lot of nasty stuff comes out of power plants and causes adverse health consequences,” Paul Billings, senior vice president for advocacy at the American Lung Association, told The Climate 202. “And there are very clear and significant benefits from reducing that toxic air pollution.”
Costs and benefits
The EPA issued a proposed legal finding that it is “appropriate and necessary” to regulate mercury and other harmful air pollutants from the power sector under the Clean Air Act, as my colleague Dino Grandoni reported.
The proposal leaves the current mercury standards for power plants, which were adopted under Barack Obama, unchanged. But it lays the groundwork for the EPA to issue stricter mercury standards in the future by relying on higher estimates of the public health benefits of reducing air pollution.
To understand why, it's first necessary to understand the messy history of mercury rules spanning both Democratic and Republican administrations:
In 2012, the Obama administration finalized the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which required coal-fired power plants to install expensive “scrubber" technology that cleans the gases passing through their smokestacks.
In the analysis underpinning the rule, Obama officials found that it would cost the industry $9.6 billion a year to comply. They justified those costs by estimating that the rule would yield $86 billion in public health benefits over five years by preventing up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 nonfatal heart attacks and 2,600 hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
But in 2018, under Donald Trump, the EPA determined that it was not “appropriate and necessary” to curb mercury pollution from power plants because the costs of doing so outweighed the benefits.
In particular, the Trump administration accused Obama officials of inflating the benefits of mercury standards by including the incidental benefits of limiting fine particulate matter, or tiny particles that can infiltrate the lungs.
The proposal by the Biden administration affirms the soundness of the Obama-era analysis, including its reliance on the co-benefits.
Reported delay over Build Back Better
Of course, it's Washington, so there were apparently some politics involved here. Biden administration officials delayed the rollout of the proposal amid tense negotiations in Congress over Democrats' Build Back Better legislation, the New York Times's Coral Davenport reports.
Administration officials feared that the proposal would "antagonize industry and lawmakers” just as Biden was seeking crucial support for the climate and social spending plan, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Times.
After negotiations over Build Back Better between the White House and holdout Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) collapsed in December, administration officials allowed the EPA to move forward with the proposal while Congress tries to resurrect the spending bill.
What happens next
The EPA plans to solicit public comments on the proposal for 60 days. At the end of the comment period, the agency will use the feedback to inform a future rulemaking, which is expected later this year.
Billings of the American Lung Association noted that the White House's regulatory affairs office took more than five months — from August to January — to review the proposed legal finding. He urged the Biden administration to “speed up the progress” on the rulemaking.
Julie McNamara, deputy policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, echoed that sentiment, noting that lives depend on the effort.
“Hazardous air pollution is still killing and sickening people,” McNamara said in a statement. “The costs and consequences of this ongoing pollution — and the fact that the harms of air pollution fall disproportionately on low-income communities and communities of color — have never been more evident.”
Pressure points
States get $1.15 billion to plug orphaned wells
(Adrián Sánchez-Gonzalez for The Washington Post)
The White House on Monday announced that it will send $1.15 billion to states to plug thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, which can leak methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, The Post’s Tik Root reports.
Congress approved the funding for orphaned well cleanup as part of the bipartisan infrastructure package that Biden signed into law in November.
Along with the funding for 26 states, the White House said it plans to form an interagency working group to measure and report planet-warming gases across the country, with a focus on methane, which has more than 80 times the warming potential than carbon dioxide in its first 20 years in the atmosphere.
The Biden administration also outlined steps to enforce requirements for pipeline operators to minimize methane leaks and to research how to reduce methane emissions from beef and dairy systems.
On the Hill
‘Front-line’ Democrats push for climate provisions in Build Back Better
A group of House Democrats running for reelection in competitive districts yesterday called on the Senate to pass the climate provisions in the Build Back Better Act.
The “front-line” Democrats — including New Democrat Coalition Chair Suzan DelBene (Wash.) and Reps. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Katie Porter (Calif.) and Abigail Spanberger (Va.) — urged the Senate to swiftly advance the $555 billion in climate spending on a call organized by the League of Conservation Voters.
“We need to invest in a cleaner grid and transportation system to be sure our rural businesses and communities are not left behind as we work to rebuild our economy in the wake of the pandemic,” said Spanberger, who faces a tough race in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.
Many Democrats are hoping that Build Back Better passes before Biden delivers his State of the Union address on March 1. But Porter poked fun at Congress's infamous inability to meet its own self-imposed deadlines.
“I think if Congress had a slogan, it would be 'Solving yesterday's problems tomorrow. Maybe,'” Porter said.
Extreme events
Climate change will cause flooding losses to spike, study finds
(Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images)
Climate change will increase U.S. flooding losses more than 26 percent over the next three decades, with disadvantaged communities bearing the brunt of the economic burden, according to a study released Monday, The Post’s Aaron Gregg reports.
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, concludes that flood risk will increase twice as fast in predominantly Black communities. The authors identified reasons for that disparity, noting that the Southeastern United States, which is expected to experience more hurricanes as temperatures rise, is home to large Black populations.
The researchers at the University of Bristol in Britain also projected that the annual cost of flooding will increase from its current estimated level of $32.1 billion to $40.6 billion by 2050.
Climate in the courts
More than 70 groups urge Biden administration not to appeal leasing decision
Climate change will increase U.S. flooding losses more than 26 percent over the next three decades, with disadvantaged communities bearing the brunt of the economic burden, according to a study released Monday, The Post’s Aaron Gregg reports.
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, concludes that flood risk will increase twice as fast in predominantly Black communities. The authors identified reasons for that disparity, noting that the Southeastern United States, which is expected to experience more hurricanes as temperatures rise, is home to large Black populations.
The researchers at the University of Bristol in Britain also projected that the annual cost of flooding will increase from its current estimated level of $32.1 billion to $40.6 billion by 2050.
Climate in the courts
More than 70 groups urge Biden administration not to appeal leasing decision
(Eric Gay/AP)
The coalition of more than 70 climate-focused groups today sent a letter to Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland urging the administration not to appeal a court decision that invalidated the largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in the nation's history.
The administration “should not continue to defend unlawful drilling for oil and gas in public waters in appellate court given the impacts on our climate, clear violations of federal environmental standards and public commitments made by President Biden to end the practice,” the groups wrote.
Signers of the letter included RL Miller, founder of Climate Hawks Vote, and Laura Neish, executive director of 350 Bay Area.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, Melissa Schwartz, redirected questions about the letter to the Justice Department, which does not comment on ongoing litigation.
Corporate commitments
Amazon led a record year in corporate clean energy purchases worldwide
Global corporations purchased more than 30 gigawatts of renewable energy last year, with online retail giant Amazon accounting for 20 percent, according to a report from BloombergNEF, Bloomberg’s Mark Chediak reports.
Amazon’s total clean energy capacity reached 13.9 gigawatts in 2021, giving it the 12th-largest clean energy portfolio among all kinds of companies. Overall, BNEF said corporate buyers were responsible for more than 10 percent of all renewable energy capacity added globally last year — equivalent to more than a third of California’s generation capacity.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
The coalition of more than 70 climate-focused groups today sent a letter to Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland urging the administration not to appeal a court decision that invalidated the largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in the nation's history.
The administration “should not continue to defend unlawful drilling for oil and gas in public waters in appellate court given the impacts on our climate, clear violations of federal environmental standards and public commitments made by President Biden to end the practice,” the groups wrote.
Signers of the letter included RL Miller, founder of Climate Hawks Vote, and Laura Neish, executive director of 350 Bay Area.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, Melissa Schwartz, redirected questions about the letter to the Justice Department, which does not comment on ongoing litigation.
Corporate commitments
Amazon led a record year in corporate clean energy purchases worldwide
Global corporations purchased more than 30 gigawatts of renewable energy last year, with online retail giant Amazon accounting for 20 percent, according to a report from BloombergNEF, Bloomberg’s Mark Chediak reports.
Amazon’s total clean energy capacity reached 13.9 gigawatts in 2021, giving it the 12th-largest clean energy portfolio among all kinds of companies. Overall, BNEF said corporate buyers were responsible for more than 10 percent of all renewable energy capacity added globally last year — equivalent to more than a third of California’s generation capacity.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
Viral
Darryl Fears, who covers environmental justice for The Post, has an explanation for all the snowy owl sightings popping up on your social media feeds. He reported back in 2014 that the snowy owl population has boomed because of abundant prey: the stubby-legged Arctic lemming.
Darryl Fears, who covers environmental justice for The Post, has an explanation for all the snowy owl sightings popping up on your social media feeds. He reported back in 2014 that the snowy owl population has boomed because of abundant prey: the stubby-legged Arctic lemming.
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