President Joe Biden revived Barack Obama-era legal findings to meet its Glasgow climate commitments. Biden’s EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has proposed regulations to make power plants 80% clean within a decade and make America carbon neutral within five years.
Obama’s EPA regulations aimed at regulating air, water, and other waste from power plants to reduce mercury and air toxins. Thus, stressed following the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). The administration was able to reduce:
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Mercury emissions by 86%
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Acid gas emissions by 96%
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Non-mercury metal emissions by 81%
The records were collected in 2017 with 2010, a pre-MATS period, as the base year. Trump reversed the MATS rule citing errors in cost-benefit analysis, the report’s inclusion of other data apart from mercury reduction, and other flaws.
Biden’s administration proposed a cost-compliant plan based on the Obama-era findings amid the Supreme Court’s agreement to take a case on limiting the EPA’s regulating powers. The EPA said that Biden’s comprehensive approach will reduce heart attacks, cancer risks, and neurodevelopmental delays in children—all of which are caused by breathing polluted air.
It is ready to spend $30-90 million on installing pollution control equipment on coal power plants without revising the MATS rule. The initiative could make running coal power less economical in the US.
