The Proposed Rule would repeal the 2024 revisions to the MATS, 89 Fed. Reg. 38508 (“2024 Rule”), reverting back to the 2012 MATS requirements. More specifically, the repeal would reduce the regulatory burden on coal- and oil-fired EGUs by repealing: (1) new emission standards for filterable particulate matter (“PM”) emissions from existing coal-fired EGUs, (2) new emission standards for mercury (“Hg”) from lignite coal-fired units, and (3) new requirements for continuous emissions monitoring (“CEMS”) of PM for all MATS units. Such requirements were found to be unnecessary in 2020, when EPA’s Residual Risk and Technology Review (“RRTR”) found that “the current NESHAP provides an ample margin of safety to protect public health and prevent an adverse environmental effect.” Repealing the rules will
address serious concerns regarding technical infeasibility and save America’s energy industry about $120 million annually, consistent with this Administration’s emphasis on reducing regulatory “compliance costs” and “the risk of costs of non-compliance.” This is crucial for a regulation that has already cost owners and operators of coal- and oil-fired EGUs over $18 billion in compliance costs since 2012.
Above all, PMI supports EPA’s return to a sound and analytical approach to cost benefit analyses, as described in EPA’s 2020 Reconsideration of Supplemental Finding and Residual Risk and Technology Review (“2020 Reconsideration”).7 The 2024 Rule moved away from this approach, embracing an unproven model that emphasizes co-benefits and more ancillary and uncertain secondary impacts. As set forth in more detail below, this flawed approach creates additional costs for consumers and power producers that are unnecessary to protect human health and the environment.