“The proposed rules will have little, if any, impacts on mercury concentrations in the environment at a very high monetary and societal cost.”
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) newly proposed National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) from Coal- and Oil-fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units and Standards of Performance for Fossil-Fuel-Fired Electric Utility, Industrial-Commercial-Institutional, and Small Industrial-Commercial-Institutional Steam Generating Units”1 failed to describe the scientific reality of natural processes and multi-factorial controls that govern the cycling of mercury (Hg) and the ultimate biomethylation and bioaccumulation processes for methylmercury (MeHg). As this report documents, this natural cycle has been taking place for at least the last 650,000 years.
According to a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on mercury,2 U.S. mercury emissions from all sources are indeed far lower than those of China and India.…
Continue ReadingGreenwire (Energy & Environmental News) ran a piece (excerpted below) that further portrays Obama faking hydrocarbon affection during a tough election year where jobs are scarce and natural gas is a leading job creator.
The article profiles Heather Zichal, Obama’s deputy assistant for energy and climate change, who has just started the job of building bridges between the Administration and the natural gas industry.
With the Administration’s environmental allies throwing natural gas under the bus, and going all out to stop drilling where natural economics dictates, the industry has learned its lesson about coalescing with the enemy.
OR, let’s hope so. After all, the industry holds the high ground in that
“The whims of foreign nations, not to mention Mother Nature, can completely offset any climate changes induced by U.S. greenhouse gas emissions reductions…. So, what’s the point of forcing Americans into different energy choices?”
A new study provides evidence that air pollution emanating from Asia will warm the U.S. as much or more than warming from U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The implication? Efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (and otherwise) to mitigate anthropogenic climate change is moot.
If the future temperature rise in the U.S. is subject to the whims of Asian environmental and energy policy, then what sense does it make for Americans to have their energy choices regulated by efforts aimed at mitigating future temperature increases across the country—efforts which will have less of an impact on temperatures than the policies enacted across Asia?…
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