EPA's New Standards Drawing Praise In NJ, But May Lead To Higher Electricty Costs In PA

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

December 23, 2011 | 10:30 AM

Kim Paynter / Newsworks/WHYY

Eric Schubel, general superintendent of the Bailey Mine, Greene County, Pa.

States like New Jersey, which had already passed strict mercury standards in 2004, are applauding the new EPA requirements:

New Jersey implemented its own stringent standards for mercury and other toxic pollution in 2004 and now sees most of its coal plant pollution waft in from the west.
“A tremendous amount of mercury comes into New Jersey from out of state,” said Judith Enck, the EPA’s administrator of Region 2, which includes New Jersey. “Air pollution does not recognize state boundaries.”
The EPA estimates the seven New Jersey power plants that will need to cut back emissions disperse 68 pounds of mercury into the air a year, while western neighbor Pennsylvania has 38 power plants that pump out more than 4,000 pounds of mercury a year, much of which falls down on New Jersey.

The Pittsburgh Business Times reports the new standards could drive up southwestern Pennsylvania electricity prices, and scale back coal production:

According to the EPA’s analysis, enacting the rule will drive retail electricity prices in southwestern Pennsylvania up 4.5 percent by 2015, 2.8 percent by 2020 and 1 percent by 2030. All of those are higher than the U.S. average and would be the second highest hike among 13 regions in the U.S.
The same analysis also projects Appalachian coal producers will be supplying 6 percent less of their products to electric power plans in 2015 than in 2009. Instead, the Interior region, which includes the “abundant Illinois Basin,”will likely pick up the slack since it’s cheaper to mine.