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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

EPA to Undermine But Not Overturn Mercury-Emission Rule

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Friday, December 28, 2018   

HELENA, Mont. – The Trump administration is set to weaken standards limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants.

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has indicated that his agency will maintain the Obama-era Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. However, it's set to make changes to the legal justification for the rule and recalculate its health benefits, opening it up to lawsuits.

Adam Pimley, an organizer with Clean Air Montana, thinks the changes will undermine the rule in the long run. He also notes that much of the industry already has complied with these standards.

"The generation industry, the folks who run the power plants, the coal-fired power plants that had to put these controls in place” says Pimley, “have invested $18 billion to do so. They don't want to see those investments essentially go up in smoke."

Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury in the U.S.. The Center for American Progress found that after the 2012 rule was put in place, emissions dropped 82 percent over the next five years.

Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that can lower IQ in children, damage the nervous system and increase the risk of heart attacks. Opponents of the rule have said it's onerous and has damaged the coal industry.

Pimley notes Montana put higher emissions standards in place before the EPA did. But he doesn't believe that prevented the state from seeing the impacts of pollution from other states.

"Air pollution doesn't know state boundaries,” says Pimley. “So just because Montana had a mercury standard before the EPA doesn't mean mercury from other states wasn't just blowing across the border and landing in our communities and in our rivers, and then getting concentrated in the fish that we like to go out and fish for and eat."

Even though the federal government shutdown continues, the EPA is expected to announce its changes to the mercury rule as early as next week.


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Health and Wellness

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Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

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Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

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Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

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Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

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New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

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Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

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Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

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