WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it was proposing standards that would cut emissions of toxic pollutants such as mercury from power plants.
The EPA said it was proposing regulations that would target mercury, arsenic and other toxic pollutants from getting into the air through its Power Plant Mercury and Air Toxic Standards.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the proposal was years in the making.
"With the help of existing technologies, we will be able to take reasonable steps that will provide dramatic protections to our children and loved ones, preventing premature deaths, heart attacks and asthma attacks," she said in a statement.
The standards would require power plants to install pollution-control technologies to cut emissions of toxic chemicals. Many, like mercury, are known to cause neurological damage and may lead to increased rates of cancer.
The National Wildlife Federation stood by the EPA decision, noting mercury has a "devastating" impact on human health. Some companies responsible for mercury emissions and some Republican lawmakers are trying to curtail the EPA proposal, however, claiming the EPA is overstepping its authority.
The EPA said its proposed rules would give power facilities four years to meet standards that could prevent 91 percent of mercury in coal from being released to the air. Coal-fired power plants are responsible for 99 percent of mercury emissions in the United States.
