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The Low IQ of the Obama EPA Mercury Rule

The Trump EPA is proposing to repair some of the junk science used to justify the Obama EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS), a 2012 rule that imposed stringent mercury emissions standards on coal-fired power plants and that led to the (ongoing) shutdowns of many US coal plants.

The Obama EPA estimated the (power plant compliance) costs of the rule to be about $10 BILLION per year. But the Obama EPA could only estimated a maximum of $6 MILLION in direct benefits from the rules mandated reduction in smokestack mercury emissions.

Since $6 MILLION vs. $10 BILLION is obviously a laughable cost-benefit ratio, the Obama EPA decided to game the cost-benefit analysis by adding in so-called “co-benefits” of reduced mercury emissions. What were these co-benefits?

The Obama EPA figured that since reducing mercury emissions would also reduce particulate (PM2.5) emissions from coal plants (either by improved scrubbing of emissions and/or plant shutdowns), the rule would also be reducing deaths caused by PM2.5. As the Obama EPA valued each of the tends of thousands of lives to be saved by the rule at as much as $9 MILLION, this co-benefit calculation added about $90 BILLION to the benefit side of the Obama EPA’s equation — and $90 BILLION vs. $10 BILLION is clearly a lot more rule friendly than $6 MILLION vs. $10 BILLION.

As JunkScience.com readers know, we have long ago debunked the notion that PM2.5 emissions kill anyone, anywhere.

As the MATS Regulatory Impact Analysis document reveals, the $6 MILLION in benefits arises from the consumption of freshwater fish containing less mercury.

More specifically, the $6 MILLION in benefits comes from higher IQs among individuals eating freshwater fish containing less mercury. Try not to spit up your coffee when you read the the Obama EPA’s description of the estimated IQ benefit.

Read the IQ benefit

https://junkscience.com/2018/12/the-low-iq-of-the-obama-epa-mercury-rule/