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Anniston Star
Jun 29, 2012 | 1067 views |
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On June 20, the U.S. Senate, on a largely partisan vote, defeated Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe’s resolution (S.J. Res. 37) that would block the Environmental Protection Agency’s emission standards for hazardous mercury, some other heavy metals, fine particulates and acid gas pollutants from coal and oil-fired power plants. (Such standards were authorized by Congress in the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990, and many power plants already have equipment that can be used to meet the new standards.)
The resolution would have also prohibited the EPA from adopting substantially similar clean-air standards in the future. Mercury is a neurotoxin in fetuses and young children. Some other metals are known to cause cancer. Fine particulates are linked to heart attacks, bronchitis and asthma.
Because of these new standards, jobs will be created, public health will be improved and health-care costs will be reduced.
Alabama Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby voted to block the standards.
David Newton
Auburn
