WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court's conservative
justices cast doubt on the Obama administration's first-ever
regulations aimed at reducing power plant emissions of
mercury and other hazardous air pollutants that contribute
to respiratory illnesses, birth defects and developmental
problems in children.
On Wednesday, the court appeared to be divided over a
challenge brought
by industry groups and 21 Republican-led states to the
Environmental Protection Agency's decision to take action
against coal- and oil-fired power plants that are
responsible for half the nation's output of mercury.
Several justices questioned whether EPA was required to take
costs into account when it first decided to regulate
hazardous air pollutants from power plants, or whether
health risks are the only consideration under the
Clean Air Act. 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. The rules begin to take
effect next month and are supposed to be fully in place in
2016.
Justice Antonin Scalia was critical of the agency's reading
of the provisions of the anti-air pollution law at issue in
the case throughout 90 minutes of arguments. "It's a silly
way to read them," Scalia said.
The court's four liberal justices appeared more comfortable
with EPA's position, leaving Justice Anthony Kennedy as the
possible decisive vote.
Kennedy at one point said the law appeared to give EPA the
leeway to regulate pollutants based only on their harm. But,
ominously for the government, he later said that once a
decision to regulate is made without consideration of cost,
"at that point the game is over."
The administration and its state government and industry
allies told the justices that EPA followed the same process
in deciding whether to regulate other sources of emissions,
including from motor vehicles.
The case is the latest in a string of attacks against the
administration's actions to rein in pollution from
coal-burning power plants that harms health and contributes
to global warming. The administration is seeking to use the
Clean Air Act for the first time to control mercury and
carbon pollution from the nation's power plants.
But numerous states have already filed challenges to a
proposed rule to curb the pollution linked to global warming
from coal-burning plants. And Congress is working on a bill
that would allow states to opt out of any rules clamping
down on heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
The legal and political challenges ahead could undermine
U.S. efforts to inspire other countries to control their
emissions, as they head into negotiations in Paris on a new
international treaty later this year.
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.
A disproportionate share of the 600 affected power plants,
most of which burn coal, are in the South and upper Midwest.
Shuttering older plants or installing pollution-control
equipment also will reduce emissions of particulate matter,
such as dust, dirt and other fragments associated with a
variety of respiratory ailments. The administration said it
properly took those benefits into account, but the
challengers argued that they are not relevant to the case.
Chief Justice John Roberts called the inclusion of those
other benefits an "end run" around more stringent procedures
EPA would have to follow to try to reduce emissions of
particulate matter.
Several utilities that already have installed the equipment,
or that primarily rely on natural gas and nuclear power to
make electricity, said the EPA rules are economically
practical. Moreover, they said that until the rules take
effect their competitors who haven't yet complied with the
rules have an unfair advantage. Another 16 states and
several large cities also are backing the administration.
The political and legal wrangling over the regulations has
gone on for decades. The Obama administration issued final
rules in 2012, and the appeals court in Washington, D.C.,
upheld them last year.
A decision is expected by the end of June.
Subscribe to Power Engineering magazine
Copyright © 2015: PennWell Corporation Subscribe to http://www.power-eng.com
http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2015/03/justices-divided-over-epa-mercury-limits.html