MATS

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) controversial Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) survived another day as the U.S. Supreme Court on June 13 declined to review the D.C. Circuit’s decision to leave the rule in place while the EPA revises it to comply with a 2015 Supreme Court ruling. The 2015 decision sent MATS back […]

Public benefits offered by the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) far outweigh the costs, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said as it released a review of the 2012-finalized rule’s cost implications. The final cost consideration—released just days before power plants that received a one-year extension must come into compliance with the rule—was prompted by […]

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed, with bipartisan support, a bill that slackens emissions limits for power plants that burn coal refuse. The Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment (SENSE) Act passed the House with a 231–183 vote on March 15. However, the White House has said it strongly opposes the bill (H.R. […]

Of nearly 18 GW of U.S. generating capacity permanently shuttered in 2015, 77% was conventional steam coal–fired. About 30% of that 13.7 GW in coal capacity was retired in April 2015, when the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule went into effect, said the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on March […]

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the plea of 20 states to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule while the agency works to comply with a previous ruling. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette had requested the stay to pause any further action to implement the rule […]

Rallied by the Supreme Court’s unprecedented stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan, a coalition of 20 states has asked the high court to stay another disputed agency rule: the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). The states are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North […]

Despite the unprecedented stay by the Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan will withstand legal challenges “based on its merits,” predicted the agency’s head, Gina McCarthy, at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. McCarthy discussed the plan and other recent initiatives to stem greenhouse gas emissions—including recently announced rules to curb […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) acting administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation, and the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) head of clean coal and carbon management gave upbeat assessments of the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda and power sector priorities speaking at the EUEC 2016 conference in San Diego on February 3. Janet McCabe of […]

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) will remain in effect as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works on a final cost finding, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered on Dec. 15. The court noted in a two-page order that the EPA “has represented that it is on track to issue […]