How is EPA reducing mercury emissions from power plants?

On December 16, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a rule to reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants from power plants. Specifically, these mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) for power plants will reduce emissions from new and existing coal and oil-fired electric utility steam generating units.  The final rule established power plant emission standards for mercury, acid gases, and non-mercury metallic toxic pollutants which will result in preventing about 90 percent of the mercury in coal burned in power plants being emitted to the air. The standards will avert up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks and 130,000 asthma attacks every year.

• MATS home page: http://www.epa.gov/mats/
• Basic information about MATS: http://www.epa.gov/mats/basic.html
• Information about how the standards will affect the health of Americans: http://www.epa.gov/mats/health.html
• Read fact sheets and the regulations themselves:  http://www.epa.gov/mats/actions.html
• Find power plants in your area of the nation affected by the MATS regulations: http://www.epa.gov/mats/where.html

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