EPA weakens regulations on mercury pollution

A coal-fired power plant in Romeoville, Illinois.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced it has created a new method of calculating the costs and benefits of controlling the release of toxic metals like mercury by oil and coal-fired power plants, weakening the existing regulation.

Environmental organizations say this will likely increase air pollution, with The New York Times' Lisa Friedman and Coral Davenport writing, "By reducing the positive health effects of regulations on paper and raising their economic costs, the new method could be used to justify loosening restrictions on any pollutant that the fossil fuel industry has deemed too costly to control."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.