Opposition to mercury standards before the Supreme Court shows coal industry at its worst

On Wednesday, March 25th, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a critical case involving mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal-fired power plants.At stake are up to 11,000 lives a year, and a very dangerous precedent that industry profits are more important than people.
In late 2011, after an 11-year process, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the first-ever standards for mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants.
Simply by requiring the worst-polluting plants to match the performance and technology of their more responsible competitors, the standards will save between 4,200 and 11,000 lives every year.
These public health protections were already years overdue because the coal industry and its allies have been trying to derail them from the beginning.
In this case they claim that EPA cannot decide whether to protect the public and the environment from toxic air pollution without first considering the effect on the industry's bottom line.
Last year, the D.C. Circuit Court rejected this argument. Industry-in a last-ditch attempt to overturn these protections-appealed, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear this case.
But Earthjustice, on behalf of Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the NAACP, will be there to defend these health safeguards.

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