Coal - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 34

ments in clean air technologies to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. In states
where investments in control technology are required, health and environmental benefits will be
substantial (USEPA 2011b).
In December 2011, EPA issued its final mercury and air toxics standards (MATS), which will
require about 40 percent of all coal-fired power plants in the United States to install pollution control
equipment to curb emissions of heavy metals, including mercury, arsenic, chromium, and nickel,
and acid gases, including hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, and cyanide, within three years.
EPA also revised the new source performance standards (NSPS) that new coal- and oil-fired
power plants must meet for particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides (USEPA 2011a).
Under this rule, all power plants will have to limit their toxic emissions, preventing 90 percent
of the mercury in coal burned from being emitted into the air. The standards set work practices,
instead of numerical limits, to limit emissions of organic air toxics, including dioxin and furans,
from existing and new coal- and oil-fired power plants. The work practice standards essentially
require for each unit an annual performance test that includes inspection, adjustment, maintenance,
and repairs to ensure optimal combustion. Revisions to the NSPS for fossil fuel-fired units include
revised numerical emission limits for particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides.
EPA claims the standards can be met with a “range of widely available and economically feasible
technologies, practices and compliance strategies available to power plants to meet the emission
limits, including wet and dry scrubbers, dry sorbent injection systems, activated carbon injection
systems, and fabric filters” (USEPA 2011a). All coal- and oil-fired electric generating units with a
capacity of twenty-five megawatt (MWe) or more will be required to comply with MATS within
four years. EPA maintains that “power plants are the largest remaining source of several toxic air
pollutants,” including arsenic, cyanide, and dioxin, and are responsible for half the mercury and
over 75 percent of acid gas emissions in the United States. More than half of all coal-fired power
plants already installed pollution control technologies that will help them meet these standards.
The new standards will ensure that remaining plants—about 40 percent of all coal-fired power
plants—take similar steps to decrease dangerous pollutants (USEPA 2011a).
The EPA estimates that generating units having 4,700 MWe of coal-fired capacity would be
required to retire from service, representing less than one-half of 1 percent, of all coal plants. EPA
maintains the standard will save lives and create 9,000 jobs as plants invest billions of dollars
to install pollution controls. The agency also emphasizes public health benefits, stating the rule
could prevent 17,000 premature deaths from toxic emissions. Projected annual private costs to the
power sector of the final air toxics rule are $9.6 billion in 2015 (in 2007 dollars) (USEPA 2011a).
Combined, the two new rules are estimated to prevent up to 46,000 premature deaths, 540,000
asthma attacks in children, and 24,500 emergency room visits and hospital admissions. The two
programs are an investment in public health that will provide a total of up to $380 billion in return
to American families in the form of longer, healthier lives and reduced health-care costs. EPA es-
timates that electricity rates are projected to stay “well within normal historical fluctuations.” The
standards will result in relatively small changes—about 3 percent—in the average retail price of
electricity, primarily due to increased demand for natural gas, the agency says (USEPA 2011b).
National Security Costs
Of the 1.05 billion tons of coal of all types (steam, metallurgical) consumed in the United States in
2010 (USEIA 2011a, Table 26), only about 19.4 million tons (1.8 percent) were imported (USEIA
2011e, Table 4), mostly from Columbia, South America. This includes coal imported to Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands from sources nearby, to minimize transportation costs. The imported