Trump’s EPA is putting the nation’s children and fetus health at risk by defanging the ability of a 2011 Obama era rule that regulates mercury, a neurotoxin that causes brain damage in young children. Under cover of the non-stop chaos that Trump unleashes on the country every single day is more than enough for his fossil-fuel cabinet to sabotage regulations that protect our environment, our climate and our health.
The mercury rule to be eviscerated, aimed at a pollutant from coal-fired power plants, has long been attacked by the National Mining Association.
Juliet Eilperin and Brady Davis of the Washington Post write:
The proposed rule, according to two senior administration officials who have reviewed the document but spoke on the condition of anonymity because it has not been finalized, would reverse a 2011 Obama administration finding that the agency must factor in any additional health benefits that arise from lowering toxic pollutants from coal plants when evaluating the rule’s costs and benefits. These “co-benefits,” which include soot and smog-forming pollutants, help underpin the justification for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) that the EPA issued seven years ago.
If enacted, the rollback — which was sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget on Friday — would not eliminate existing mercury emissions limits altogether. But it could severely weaken the underlying public health justification that the previous administration used to restrict the release of that and other harmful pollutants into the air.
Babies exposed to mercury in the womb can have brain damage and hearing and vision problems, according to the March of Dimes. They note that mercury comes in many forms including:
It can be a colorless, odorless, poisonous vapor in the air. It’s released into the air when it’s spilled or when something that contains it breaks. It’s also released through industrial processes, like burning waste or burning coal in power plants. It can fall from the air back to earth and build up in oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. Fish get mercury from the water they swim in and from eating other fish that have mercury in them. It’s a shiny, silver-colored substance used to make dental fillings, fever thermometers, and other products.Exposure to mercury happens through skin contact, breathing or by eating and drinking.
The by-products of coal ash are contained in large holding ponds. In the state of North Carolina, some coal ash ponds breached their containment walls by the mind-boggling amount of floodwaters brought by Hurricane Florence rainfall.
It is unknown how many people will be exposed as a result. Daily Kos blogger Walter Einenkel wrote about the toxic nightmare in the Carolinas and is worth a visit to review.
The GOP assault on our legal system unfolding now on the national stage has allegations of sexual assault, gang rape and the real threat on Roe v. Wade posed by Trump’ s nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left open by the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, provides the perfect opportunity to sneak the new rules into effect by a clearly unqualified rubber-stamp for all of Trump’s atrocities.
The strange piece of this story is that the coal Industry is already in full compliance with the rule. But according to the Washington Post article, the fossil fuel agenda is to ensure that precedent is established to prevent other rules from hampering their ability to put corporate profits above human health.
Coral Davenport of the New York Times writes about the Kavanaugh connection:
The proposal also highlights a key environmental opinion of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the embattled Supreme Court nominee, whose nomination hearings have gripped the nation in recent days.
The coal industry initially sued to roll back the mercury regulation, and in 2014 its case lost in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. However, Judge Kavanaugh wrote the dissenting opinion in that case, highlighting questions about the rule’s cost to industry.
Should the legal battle over the proposed regulatory rollback go before the Supreme Court, some observers expect that Judge Kavanaugh, if elevated to a seat on the high court, would side with the coal industry.
Yet another attack by the GOP and their supporters on American families. Vote them out of power this November.