Let's get 3 things straight:
1. There is no "balance" between business and the environment...
2. ...because it's still pollution, no balance, and...
3. ...Republicans/conservative voters are willing to let people die for money and business. It's that simple.
Hyperbolic? No, because there's no wiggle room here, Republicans will let people die. It's the price of capitalism,
no balance:
The Trump administration proposed major changes to the way the federal government calculates the benefits, in human health and safety, of restricting mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants ... declaring rules imposed on mercury ... are too costly to justify ... ignoring or playing down other health benefits. The administrator “has concluded that the identification of these benefits is not sufficient, in light of the gross imbalance of monetized costs.”
In other words, by narrowly focusing in on mercury, which is no small matter either...
...the costs to industry in installing pollution controls ranged from $7.4 billion to $9.6 billion annually, while the health benefits of cutting mercury ranged from $4 million to $6 million annually. In other words, it said that the costs of the rule outweigh the benefits.
Weakening mercury regulations effects all other pollutants: Not too difficult to understand. Besides mercury, it allows all other particulates in the air that will hurt and kill thousands of Americans prematurely a year:
The Obama administration cited an additional $80 billion in health benefits a year ... the rules would prevent 11,000 premature deaths not from curbing mercury itself, but from what is known as a co-benefit, the reduction in particulate matter linked to heart and lung disease that also occur when a plant reduces its mercury emissions.
Trump’s revised procedures would essentially ignore co-benefits and count only the direct potential benefits of cutting mercury ... the current limits can no longer be justified as “appropriate and necessary” under the law.
The Energy Industry Opposes Trump's Coal Industry Special Interest Rollback: Another longtime Republican Party platform decision opposed by the energy industry moving quickly into alternative clean energy sources:
The vast majority of utility companies have said the proposed changes are now of little benefit to them, because they have already spent the billions of dollars needed to come into compliance, and have urged the Trump administration to leave the mercury measure in place.
Let's be very Clear about Trump's EPA Coal Industry backed death sentence for thousands of Americans: Note-just damaging the brain and nervous system of children is reason enough, right?
1. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can damage the brain and nervous system in young children, leading to lower I.Q. and impaired motor skills.
2. The Obama administration estimated that the measure would prevent 4,700 heart attacks and 130,000 asthma attacks as well as 11,000 premature deaths by also eliminating fine particulate matter linked to those ailments.
3. Business groups like the Chamber of Commerce and others argue the earlier numbers inflated the benefits of the rule, underestimated costs and improperly justified cutting mercury by relying largely on the benefits of reduced particulate matter. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: “It is not rational, never mind ‘appropriate,’ to impose billions of dollars in economic costs in return for a few dollars in health or environmental benefits.
A few dollars in health benefits? Ah, the mind of a great justice.
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