Contact: Sasha Tenenbaum, stenenbaum@momscleanairforce.org, (917) 887-0146
Washington, DC—Today, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan announced new protections against mercury and other air toxics coming from coal-fired power plants. Among other benefits of the new standards, they will address emissions from the burning of lignite coal, an especially polluting form of coal found primarily in North Dakota and Texas. They will strengthen protection from non-mercury toxics, such as arsenic, lead, and chromium. The new standards will also require continuous emissions monitoring for coal plants, which means that facilities will be required to track their pollution at all times—rather than just for short, periodic emissions tests.
Moms Clean Air Force Co-Founder and Director Dominique Browning and Senior Policy Analyst Elizabeth Bechard released the following statement:
“Moms Clean Air Force heartily applauds this announcement. The science is clearer with every passing year: Any amount of mercury endangers developing fetal brains, and the brains of babies and children. No amount is safe.
“People consume mercury from eating fish and rice that have been contaminated. Mercury spews from coal-fired power plants, and that mercury settles into bodies of water, where it converts to a particularly toxic form called methylmercury. As it is eaten by fish, methylmercury travels up the food chain—and it becomes more concentrated in large, fattier fish, such as tuna. Mercury lodges in fatty tissue. When a pregnant woman consumes contaminated fish or rice, that mercury crosses the placental barrier and finds the only fatty tissue in a fetus: the brain. There it disrupts the development of healthy brain structures, leading to behavioral and learning problems and lowering IQ. Any parent with a child who struggles with behavioral and learning challenges knows these challenges can profoundly impact a family’s quality of life.
“The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) also protect us from other hazardous air pollutants, like arsenic, lead, and chromium. People deserve to know that these dangerous pollutants are in the air we breathe. The new protections announced today will require coal plants to continuously monitor toxic chemicals in their emissions, rather than simply conducting periodic and occasional emissions tests that don’t necessarily reflect the pollution actually going into the air most of the time.
“Moms Clean Air Force has been fighting for the strongest possible protections against mercury from the earliest days of our organization 12 years ago. We know that strong mercury protections work: cleaner fish are harvested in areas where coal plants are using scrubber technology to remove the mercury and other air toxics—or where coal-burning plants have been shut down. But many plants turn off their scrubbers to save money—and many still operate without pollution controls. EPA’s announcement means that these plants, including the worst-polluting lignite coal plants in Texas and North Dakota, will be held accountable for their pollution. Our families and communities have a right to know what’s in our air. And we have a right to breathe clean air. We thank EPA for this step forward, and we will continue to advocate for the strongest Mercury and Air Toxics Standards possible.”
Resources:
- Fact Sheet: Mercury 101 (2022)
- Keeping Mercury Out of Babies’ Brains
- Map of worst-polluting coal plants (EDF, 2022)
- Overview: The Health Benefits of Mercury Standards are Much Larger Than Estimated (2019)
- Illustrative Fact Sheet: How Mercury Poisoning Works (2018) ; Click here to view in Spanish (”Cómo Actúa el Envenenamiento por Mercurio”)