燃煤电厂汞标准

POWER PLANT MERCURY AND AIR TOXICS STANDARDS

Overview of Proposed Rule and Impacts

发电厂汞和大气有毒物排放标准

提议法案及影响综述

ACTION

On March 16, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the first national standard to reduce mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal and oil-fired power plants. This document provides an overview of the benefits of the proposed clean air standards and highlights key facts and impacts associated with them.

情景

2011年3月16日美国环保部提出了第一个燃煤燃油电厂汞及其他有毒大气污染物排放控制国家标准。本本件提出了该大气清洁法提案的益处和他们相关的突出关键事实及与影响。

BACKGROUND

This proposed rule is developed under section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA), provisions that set standards to reduce air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants.

Most notably, this proposal sets technology-based emissions limitation standards for mercury and other toxic air pollutants, reflecting levels achieved by the best-performing sources currently in operation.

Existing sources have up to four years to comply with these standards; all existing sources must comply in three years, but individual sources can obtain an additional year if

technology cannot otherwise be installed in time.

The regulations issued today are under a Consent Decree of the D.C. Court of Appeals requiring EPA to issue a proposal by this date, and a final rule in November 2011.

POWER PLANT EMISSIONS

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There are about 1,350 coal and oil-fired units at 525 power plants that emit harmful

pollutants including mercury, arsenic, other toxic metals, acid gases, and organic air toxics including dioxin.

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In 1990, three industry sectors made up approximately two-thirds of total U.S. mercury emissions: medical waste incinerators, municipal waste combustors, and power plants. Two

of those sectors are now subject to standards and have reduced their mercury emissions by

more than 95 percent. In addition, mercury standards for other industries, such as cement production and steel manufacturing, have reduced mercury emissions from a wide range of sources.

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Power plants are the dominant emitters of mercury (50 percent), acid gases (over 50 percent)

and many toxic metals (over 25 percent) in the United States. Despite the availability of

proven control technologies, and the more than 20 years since the 1990 CAA Amendments passed, there are still no existing federal standards that require power plants to limit their emissions of toxic air pollutants like mercury, arsenic and metals.

These standards are long overdue. In 2000, after years of study, EPA issued a scientific and lega l determination that it was ―appropriate and necessary‖ to control mercury emissions from power plants. The prior administration finalized a rule to cut mercury pollution from power plants but the D.C. Circuit struck the rule down as illegal and required EPA to develop standards that follow the law and the science in order to protect human health and the environment.

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