It's Still (Again) Necessary And Appropriate To Regulate Air Toxics From Power Plants

EPA has proposed to revoke the Trump administration finding in 2020 that it is not appropriate and necessary to regulate emissions of air toxics from coal- and oil-fired electric generating units. Instead, EPA proposes to reaffirm its 2012 and 2016 determinations supporting such regulation. 

This is not surprising and should not be controversial. It may seem odd that I'm citing to the Edison Electric Institute twice in one week in support of EPA regulatory authority, but E&E News (subscription required) does quote EEI president Tom Kuhn as supporting the determination. I'll therefore just briefly touch on three noteworthy aspects of EPA's proposal:

• EPA has rerun the numbers and found both that the costs of the MATS regulations were substantially overestimated the first time around and that the benefits of the regulations were underestimated. Thus, the rule looks even more "appropriate" now than it did in 2012 or 2016 or 2020.