Environmental and public health advocates thronged a Thursday public hearing in opposition to EPA’s proposed rollback of strengthened air toxics regulations for coal-fired power plants.
Over the course of more than 11 hours, they variously invoked biblical principles, noted that many plants already meet the stronger standards and highlighted the harm posed by mercury, a brain-damaging pollutant that was a key target of the stricter pollution limits put in place last year during the Biden administration.
The planned rollback of those limits “is indefensible cruelty and a moral collapse,” Dr. Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, told a panel of three EPA staffers who listened impassively at the virtual event.
As is typical for agency Clean Air Act hearings, industry representatives were far outnumbered. Among the proposed rollback’s few defenders was Shannon Heim, general counsel for NorthWestern Energy, a part owner in Montana’s Colstrip power plant and a leading foe of the stronger regulations.
