Battle over EPA 'co-benefits' rages after mercury ruling

摘要

The Supreme Court's ruling this week that U.S. EPA should have considered the cost of its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards has reignited a debate about the agency's practice of counting health "co-benefits" in justifying the economic impacts of its Clean Air Act rules. Industry maintains that practice double-counts health benefits for ancillary reductions of pollutants that aren't the regulation's focus. These co-benefits loom large in the proposed Clean Power Plan, which EPA predicts will lead to big reductions in soot and smog, curbing emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates along with reducing heat-trapping carbon dioxide.