However, we in Pennsylvania know well the "cost" of mercury emissions: In 2009, EPA's Toxics Release Inventory placed Pennsylvania second nationally for mercury and mercury compound emissions from power plants. The cost to our health includes accumulations in humans and other organisms (fish we consume), risks to pregnant women, and risks to developing fetuses' brains. As many as one in six women of childbearing age have mercury in their blood above safe levels.
For more thoughts on the true cost: According to EPA, the proposed rule will prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks each year. That's a major health cost we've been shouldering nationally, and this rule makes a difference in addressing that number.
The EPA rule has survived various ill-intended attempts to weaken or eliminate it. In 2012, Senator Bob Casey voted down a Congressional attempt to derail the rule, standing with the major health, faith, and environmental organizations all working to protect the health of those most at risk: Babies and mothers. PennFuture has been working on this health issue on state and federal levels for more than a decade, including organizing testimony at EPA hearings and postcard campaigns (thank you, PennFuture supporters for your work on this!). This ruling is a victory for human health and against polluters but, unfortunately, it won't be the last word on the topic.
For more info and background, here's a brief round-up on the subject:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/16/3427336/court-air-toxics-ruling/
http://citizensvoice.com/opinion/states-should-end-appeals-comply-with-mercury-rule-1.1671417
http://www.natlawreview.com/article/dc-circuit-upholds-utility-mact-mercury-and-air-toxics-standard-rule-2-1-split
Kate Gibbons is northeast Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture, based in Wilkes-Barre.
