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Hurricane Helene charges toward Florida's Gulf Coast, expected to strike late today as a dangerous storm; Millions of Illinois' convenient voting method gains popularity; House task force holds first hearing today to investigate near assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania; New report finds Muslim students in New York face high levels of discrimination in school.

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Biden says all-out-war is threatening in the Middle East, as tensions rise. Congress averts a government shutdown, sending stopgap funding to the president's desk and an election expert calls Georgia's latest election rule a really bad idea.

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The presidential election is imminent and young rural voters say they still feel ignored, it's leaf peeping season in New England but some fear climate change could mute fall colors, and Minnesota's mental health advocates want more options for troubled youth.

Mercury Pollution Control Creates Clouds of Confusion

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Tuesday, June 30, 2015   

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule is being cheered and jeered in Ohio.

The court has directed the EPA to rewrite the rule to take into account compliance costs. Critics have called it "too expensive" and a "job killer," but supporters, including the Sierra Club, say the rule will prevent more than 500 premature deaths every year in Ohio.

The Sierra Club Ohio Chapter's Neil Waggoner says the bottom line is the rule is still in place even with the court's decision, though the rule's implementation may be delayed at some plants.

"It's more of a setback than a defeat," says Waggoner. "We've already seen a number of utilities taking measures to protect the public against mercury."

Earthjustice attorney Shannon Fisk notes American Electric and First Energy already decided to retire coal-fired power plants in Ohio.

"Frankly, that's because those plants simply are not economic," he says. "Leaving aside the rule, it's simply not 'smart money' to be spending money on coal-fired power plants that are 40, 50, 60 years old."

Waggoner says most power plants already installed technology to be in compliance with the stricter EPA regulations, and he adds that there's no argument that mercury is a neurotoxin connected to lifelong damage, premature deaths and asthma attacks.

"For all these folks that are really celebrating this as a huge win, well, they're celebrating mercury being put out into the air and water," he says. "It's interesting what they're celebrating right now."

Since the rule was finalized in 2012, most plants in Ohio had already complied, or closed. Besides mercury, the rule intends to curtail emissions of arsenic, chromium and hydrochloric acid gas.


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