The EPA finalized its Utility MACT rule on December 16, 2011. The regulation requires coal-fueled power plants to reduce mercury and other hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions by installing pollution-control technology. The Utility MACT rule is one of the most expensive regulations the EPA has ever written for power plants. The EPA’s own analysis estimates that it would cost a total of almost $90 billion. These costs will be passed down to both residential consumers and manufacturers.
Please take this opportunity to sign onto this letter to your Senators, urging them to support Sen. Inhofe’s (R-OK) Resolution of Disapproval (S. J. Res. 37) that would repeal the Utility MACT rule.
Thank You for your support.
Dear Senator:
We write to urge you to support S. J. Res. 37 that would disapprove the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently issued Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for coal-fueled power plants (also known as Utility MACT). We support responsible measures to improve air quality, and disapproving this rule does not prevent the EPA from reducing mercury emissions from power plants. Instead, passing S. J. Res. 37 would ensure the EPA writes a sensible regulation that reduces mercury without unnecessarily raising energy prices and destroying more jobs.
According to the EPA’s own figures, MATS is the most expensive rule the Agency has ever written for power plants and would cost a total of almost $90 billion. At a time when our economy, families and workers are struggling, we cannot afford higher energy prices and job losses. These higher energy prices are especially harmful to low-income and fixed-income families and to energy-intensive manufacturers that provide good paying jobs. In addition, many public officials and experts have expressed widespread concerns that electric reliability could be threatened because the new rule would force the premature retirement of many coal-fired power plants. So far, over 140 coal-fired electricity generating units in 19 states will be taken off-line by 2015.
MATS is an overreaching rule and passing S.J. Res. 37 is necessary to ensure that the EPA writes a sensible regulation. I appreciate your attention and again urge you to vote for the resolution when it comes to the Senate floor.
Sincerely,
[Companies and associations in alphabetical order]