WASHINGTON (AP) - A divided Supreme Court on Monday ruled
against federal regulators' attempts to limit power plant
emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.
It's a blow to U.S. efforts to inspire other countries to
control their emissions as they approach Paris talks on a
new global climate treaty later this year.
The challenge was brought by industry groups and 21
Republican-led states, which argued that the regulations
were too costly for coal miners, businesses and consumers.
The case is the latest in a string of attacks against the
Obama administration's actions to use the
Clean Air Act to rein in pollution from coal-burning
power plants.
The rules began to take effect in April, but the court split
5-4 along ideological lines to decide that the Environmental
Protection Agency failed to take their cost into account
when the agency first decided to regulate the toxic
emissions from coal- and oil-fired plants.
The EPA did factor in costs at a later stage when it wrote
standards that are expected to reduce the toxic emissions by
90 percent. They were supposed to be fully in place next
year.
The issue was whether health risks are the only
consideration under the Clean Air Act.
Writing for the court,
Justice Antonin Scalia said it is not appropriate to
impose billions of dollars of economic costs in return for a
few dollars in health or environmental benefits. He was
joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony
Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said it was enough that the
EPA considered costs at later stages of the process. She was
joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and
Sonia Sotomayor.
In the case of mercury, the costs of installing and
operating equipment to remove the pollutants before they are
dispersed into the air are hefty - $9.6 billion a year, the
EPA found.
But the benefits are much greater, $37 billion to $90
billion annually, the agency said. The savings stem from the
prevention of up to 11,000 deaths, 4,700 nonfatal heart
attacks and 540,000 lost days of work, the EPA said. Mercury
accumulates in fish and is especially dangerous to pregnant
or breastfeeding women, and young children, because of
concern that too much could harm a developing brain.
The case now goes back to lower courts for the EPA to decide
how to account for costs.
The EPA said it is reviewing the court's decision and will
determine any appropriate next steps.
"EPA is disappointed that the Supreme Court did not uphold
the rule, but this rule was issued more than three years
ago, investments have been made and most plants are already
well on their way to compliance," EPA spokeswoman Melissa
Harrison said.
More than 70 percent of power plants already have installed
controls to comply with the rules, said Vicki Patton, an
attorney at the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund.
EPA is readying rules expected to be released sometime this
summer aimed at curbing pollution from coal-burning power
plants that is linked to global warming. States have already
challenged those rules even before they are final, and
Congress is working on a bill that would allow states to opt
out of any rules clamping down on heat-trapping carbon
dioxide.
Many the 600 affected power plants, most of which burn coal,
are in the South and upper Midwest.
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