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You are here: Home / What The EPA Just Did

What The EPA Just Did

by | 53 Comments

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This seems to have flown under the radar for many of us:

Resisting strenuous last-minute lobbying by some of the nation’s biggest utilities, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday a final rule requiring power plants to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants by roughly 90 percent within the next five years.

This is a big victory for environmentalists and scientists who have worked for 20 years to regulate these pollutants — and an even bigger one for the public. When fully effective, the rule could save as many as 11,000 premature deaths a year and avoid countless unnecessary illnesses.

Kthug puts this in perspective:

Let me repeat part of that: it will save tens of thousands of lives every year and prevent birth defects, learning disabilities, and respiratory diseases. This is actually a much bigger issue, when it comes to saving American lives, than terrorism.

This is a nice Christmas present to America.

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  2. 2.

    RinaX

    Well, there’s been awareness of this on certain other blogs that actually discuss the good things the Administration does on a regular basis for a few weeks now, but glad to see the bigger blogs start to pick up on this.

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    But the lives and money it saves are mostly little people. Who cares if they die! What really matters is putting more money into the pockets of our Galtian Genius Job Creators(TM). It’s just more proof that Obama hates America.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Oh, so utilities won’t be able to cost shift their negligence onto the health care system any longer? Man, that’s brutal. How oppressive. (cue Michael Palin protesting that he’s being oppressed)

  5. 5.

    taylormattd

    HES A REPUBLICAN. NOT GONNA VOTE FOR HIM. SHOULD HAVE DONE IT BY EXECUTIVE ORDER THREE YEARS AGO. HILLARY WOULD HAVE DONE IT SOONER. HE ONLY DID THIS BECAUSE OF OUR PRESSURE. AND BESIDES THERE IS A CLAUSE IN IT THAT LETS HIM POLLUTE STILL.

  6. 6.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    This is good news for Mitt Romney. Are you aware Mr Romney was a successful businessman?

  7. 7.

    Baud

    Unfortunately, a lot of good things seem to fly under the radar when it comes to Obama. If there is a silver lining, it’s that a lot of people will hopefully be pleasantly surprised to learn about these good things during the campaign next year.

  8. 8.

    hildebrand

    But but but – Matt Damon haz a sad and says the President still doesn’t have big enough balls for the job – and clearly Mr. Damon is the be all and end all of Democratic party operatives – so shut up with this kind of ‘getting stuff done’ nonsense, ’cause clearly the Preznit is not all that. So there. Also,too.

  9. 9.

    Cronin

    Another in a long and growing line of things certain parties would like to ignore. The Obama administration may not be perfect, but can we all pause a second and reflect on the fact that this would never, ever have happened under a McCain administration? Pretty please?

  11. 11.

    FormerSwingVoter

    Wait, no.

    Y’see, a Republican somewhere said a thing. That means we have to talk about what he said instead of what this administration has accomplished.

    Didn’t you get the memo?

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Are you aware Mr Romney was a successful businessman?

    Romney may have been a successful businessman, but apparently he doesn’t want to talk too much about it. He’s refusing to release his tax returns. Now the question is whether it’s because he doesn’t want to admit how much money he’s making, where it’s coming from, how he’s dodging taxes, or just doesn’t realize how much of a tin ear his refusal shows. Of course it could be more than one of the above.

  13. 13.

    Anya

    Accomplishments like these show how absurd “not a dime’s worth of difference between Obama and (insert name of Republican de jour)) crowd are. The regular freakouts about anonymous sources and Politico and HuffPo bait takes attention away from the actual accomplishments of the administration. I hope people who care about health care and envirnment would start being vocal about all things that the adminstration does that make a difference.

  15. 15.

    MikeJ

    I saw Republicans today loudly proclaiming that a little mercury never hurt anybody, but didn’t know what triggered it.

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Roger Moore:

    just doesn’t realize how much of a tin ear his refusal shows. Of course it could be more than one of the above.

    I’m going with this one first and foremost, because his tin ear is remarkably wide ranging, covering a great many things.

  17. 17.

    Kerry Reid

    I will say that a lot of the Usual Suspects in my environmental email list were all over this yesterday and unabashedly gleeful about this victory, so it’s not like nobody was paying attention. Just (mostly) nobody in Our Very Serious Media. And there is a part of me thinking “Wouldn’t this have been done ten years ago if Gore had been president?” But yeah — it’s a nice kick-off to the holiday weekend.

  20. 20.

    Comrade Dread

    This is a nice Christmas present to America.

    Unless you happen to be living in Republican-land, in which case, this is the worst form of Marxism ever, and the EPA should be abolished for daring to infringe upon the rights of energy companies to spew toxic metals across the land, and anyway, mercury isn’t toxic, and even if it were, it should be remedied in the courts with one state suing another for letting its pollution get out of control because that’s the way a minority of the Founders would have wanted it.

  21. 21.

    El Cid

    OMG Michelle Obama’s going to take all our mercury thermometers away so the white kids will die from fever!

  23. 23.

    Perfect Tommy

    within the next five years.

    So they have two chances at getting a R president (who will reverse this edict) in office before the deadline. They’ll wait it out, much as they did before GWB saved them…

  24. 24.

    General Stuck

    Good works from a good president this stupid country doesn’t deserve. And a jolly xmas for all my obot friends on this psychotic blog. The rest can have an eggnog enema for what i care.

  25. 25.

    Hill Dweller

    @hildebrand: Matt Damon popped off again? The President certainly has plenty of material from Damon’s most recent movie to use at the correspondents dinner.

  26. 26.

    gogol's wife

    I’m a total obot and I loved the Christmas card. And I’m glad Bo is getting a $25 chew toy.

  27. 27.

    Calouste

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    No, I didn’t know that, and frankly, I don’t believe it. What I do know is that Romney was a business and job destroying corporate raider.

    Just as I never knew that John McCain was a PoW. I did know that he was a self-promoting sack of shit though.

  28. 28.

    hildebrand

    @Hill Dweller: Yep – his latest bit of ‘wisdom’ is to be found in an interview in Elle magazine.

    “I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,’ ” Damon says, his disappointment ringing with a now-familiar tone of wounded idealism. “You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”

  30. 30.

    Mino

    @Perfect Tommy: I can’t decide which is worse/better–rolling the same stone up the hill or being repeatedly de-livered. But that seems to be the destiny of progressives.

  32. 32.

    The Moar You Know

    Matt Damon haz a sad and says the President still doesn’t have big enough balls for the job

    @hildebrand: Matt Damon was busted for playing the bongos while smoking pot – naked.

    I don’t know if that’s gemane or not, but I never get tired of reminding people about it.

  35. 35.

    Hill Dweller

    @hildebrand: The most frustrating part is no one talks about Republicans using the filibuster to turn the Senate into a minority-ruled legislative body. McConnell has engaged in an unprecedented level of obstructionism, but hasn’t had to pay a price for it. Hell, he openly talks about wanting to destroy Obama without anyone in the press batting an eye.

    If a Democrat engaged in the exact same behavior, he/she and the party would be destroyed in the press.

  37. 37.

    Comrade Mary

    @Mnemosyne: Can I still fantasi — err, imagine that it was Matt Damon? Puerile opinions aside, he’s more my type than that hank of hemp rope McConaughey.

  38. 38.

    boss bitch

    This seems to have flown under the radar for many of us:

    Like almost every BFD that the administration passes. We’ll see if this thread gets past 60 comments.

  39. 39.

    hildebrand

    @Hill Dweller: I was thinking about that the other day – remembering the days of watching John Chancellor or David Brinkley (or hell, even any vote before 2009, so therefore any particular news-type talking-head even on the scrubby cable news channels) detailing any number of 50-50 votes when the Vice President needed to vote, or somesuch other exceptionally close vote wherein something would pass or fail. The winning party would gloat (or try to look like they weren’t gloating), the losing party would kvetch – but then they all went about their business, as they knew that this was just the way the legislative process was supposed to work.

    So I continue to be absolutely gobsmacked that the Republicans are not paying a vicious price for completely upending the way business gets done in Washington. Why is it that some schmuck like Brian Williams (and others of his ilk) can’t ask, night after night after night about the Republicans destruction of the legislative process? Mr. Williams – stick this particular shiv in every single night. Make the American public wake up to the fact that the Republicans are busily destroying that precious little document called the Constitution, especially the god-damned First Article of said Constitution.

    And while I am ranting – why is it that certain fucking Democratic wankers can’t see that it is the Republican destruction of the legislative process that has absolutely hamstrung the President. Christ on a cracker, if the bloody Senate actually worked, Obama would be one of the most productive Presidents in the last 50 years. Bah.

  41. 41.

    trollhattan

    Now watch House Republicans try to defund the EPA.

    After the prior administration screwed the nation on new source review, this move is well, well overdue.

  42. 42.

    burnspbesq

    @Kerry Reid:

    I will say that a lot of the Usual Suspects in my environmental email list were all over this yesterday and unabashedly gleeful about this victory, so it’s not like nobody was paying attention. Just (mostly) nobody in Our Very Serious Media. And there is a part of me thinking “Wouldn’t this have been done ten years ago if Gore had been president?” But yeah—it’s a nice kick-off to the holiday weekend.

    Sorry to harsh your buzz, but it’s not over. I’ll bet you a bottle of your favorite adult beverage that by the end of January there will be legislation introduced in the House that will bar the EPA and DOJ from spending any appropriated funds to enforce these regulations.

    That said, this is 31 flavors of awesome. Thank you, Santa.

  43. 43.

    S. cerevisiae

    I worked for three years in air quality and this is a big deal that was a long time in the making. About time, EPA! To the wingnuts who don’t like it they can go drink a cup of mercury.

    Yay Obama!

  44. 44.

    Perfect Tommy

    I was at an environmental conference at Pew in DC a few years back and they were touting the benefits of the mercury scrubbers. I raised my hand and asked how they sequester the scrubbed Hg to keep it out of the environment. The panel members exchanged uncomfortable glances and then talked about how it was mixed with Gypsum and incorporated into drywall …

  45. 45.

    Bill Arnold

    @<a href="#co@MikeJ: mment-2948384″>MikeJ:

    I saw Republicans today loudly proclaiming that a little mercury never hurt anybody, but didnt know what triggered it.

    The same party that has made it part of the party canon to refuse to use CFLs because, among other reasons, they contain a few (like 4) milligrams of mercury that could escape if the bulb was broken.

  46. 46.

    Bill Arnold

    @Hill Dweller:

    Hell, he openly talks about wanting to destroy Obama without anyone in the press batting an eye.

    This was part of the secret Republican oath of office, something like the little-known Sumerian Oath (Philip Jose Farmer). It supersedes the regular oath of office. Just FYI.

  47. 47.

    Perfect Tommy

    @Bill Arnold: I had one of my friends breathlessly warn me about the hazards of mercury in CFLs, after watching a Fox News exposé. When I explained to him that every fluorescent bulb he had ever had in his home and garage contained the same mercury and had the same disposal requirements, he was dumbfounded.

  50. 50.

    Roger Moore

    @Bill Arnold:

    The same party that has made it part of the party canon to refuse to use CFLs because, among other reasons, they contain a few (like 4) milligrams of mercury that could escape if the bulb was broken.

    Hey, you can’t expect Republicans to be intellectually consistent. Cognitive dissonance is a way of life for them, and you wouldn’t want to make them give up their way of life.

  51. 51.

    SectarianSofa

    Boring. This will disproportionately save the lives of poor people, and also, gay marriage. Stupid liberals. IT SAYS RIGHT HERE IN GENESIS THAT ADAM BLEW STACKS AND THAT GOES FOR MERCURY ONEs 2, GENIUSSES!!

    Unsnarkedly, I had 6 or 7 different enviro or liberal or reality-based orgs send me emails on this subject in the last 2 or 3 days. Maybe some of them were as pleasantly surprised as I was?

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