Supreme Court: National Mining Association v. EPA Profits Before People?

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

National Mining Association v. EPA

.
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.
.
Source