This post originally appeared on Green For All’s Cost of Delay:
Poison from coal-fired power plants is killing our kids. We’re suffering from preventable heart disease and asthma attacks. And we’re spending billions of dollars on hospital visits and missed days at work and school. Polluters are trying to delay new clean air rules that will create jobs and protect the air we breathe and the water we drink.
What is MATS (Mercury and Air Toxic Standards)?
On Dec. 16, 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the support of President Obama, stepped up to help reduce the amount of pollution that is making our communities sick, by putting a limit on pollution from coal-fired power plants by finalizing MATS, the new Mercury and Air Toxic Standards rule.
Benefits of Cleaning Up Toxic Air Pollution From Power Plants
If implemented, MATS will…
- Prevent 100,000 heart and asthma attacks each year
- Prevent unnecessary chronic bronchitis, respiratory illness, hospital visits, and premature deaths
- Provide health protections for children – helping to protect their nervous systems and ability to learn
- Create thousands of good jobs for American workers who will be hired to build, install and operate pollution controls (46,000 short-term construction jobs & 8,000 long-term utility jobs)
- 540,000 missed work & school days will be avoided each year
- Reduce air pollution
- Save $37 – $90 billion each year on human health alone!
Big oil lobbyists are already trying to block these rules from being implemented. We can stop them!
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Photos used with permission: Green For All