Posted on 11/04/2019 8:45:23 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Environmental Protection Agency will propose easing rules on disposal of coal ash, the residue from burning coal, to make it less likely the federal government would shutter a coal-fired utility plant, in an announcement set for Monday.
The move is part of what has been a larger deregulation push by the Trump administration to roll back strict Obama-era regulations that the industry viewed as the previous administration’s “war on coal” that pushed to shut down many coal-fired power plants.
“The EPA is no longer picking winners and losers in electric generation,” Peter Wright, assistant administrator for EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management, told reporters in a conference call Friday.
Coal ash is frequently recycled, and used as material for wallboard and concrete. Thus, according to the EPA, the rule could provide more resources for building the nation’s highways and for agricultural purposes. Coal ash reuse also conserves natural resources and provides viable alternatives to disposal, the agency contends.
“This demonstrates our support for reuse of coal ash,” Wright said.
More than 500 units at approximately 260 coal-fired facilities may be impacted by Monday’s proposed rule, according to the EPA.
In 2015, the Obama administration’s EPA imposed a regulation for disposal in landfills and impoundments of coal ash, specifying inspection, monitoring, record keeping, and reporting requirements.
However, in 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out certain provisions of the EPA’s 2015 final rule and remanded it back to the agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
PING!
Overdue. Still will we need it? Market forces.
“The EPA is no longer picking winners and losers in electric generation,” Peter Wright, assistant administrator for EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management, told reporters in a conference call Friday. Coal ash is frequently recycled, and used as material for wallboard and concrete. Thus, according to the EPA, the rule could provide more resources for building the nation’s highways and for agricultural purposes. Coal ash reuse also conserves natural resources and provides viable alternatives to disposal, the agency contends.
Get back to me when the O’Bungle EPA rule contrived to shutter the only remaining U.S. Lead refining operation is repealed.
However, Trump absolutely deserves praise on rolling back environmental regulations, and, just today I believe, he began the formal extraction of the USA from the Paris Climate Treaty.
Also, yesterday, Trump promised to reduce UN Refugees to 18,000 per year in 2020. In his first two years he reduced it to about 30,000 per year. In 2016, Obama took in 80,000 refugees. The number should be ZERO, but 18,000 is a very significant reduction.
Trump also gets a “B-minus” for his Circuit Court judge nominees.
Tragically, Trump gets a “F” for his District Court nominees. Last time I checked, 54% of his District nominees got at least 30 votes from Senate Democrats.
Man, I used to breathe coal dust as a kid. Came with the territory - the beds of railroad tracks were lined with it like black chalk dust. The tire plant’s twin stacks belched clouds of it. I’d dig in the dirt looking for fossils in those hills and ridges and find chunks of it everywhere. Still have burning coal seams up there that throw out pockets of steam through the bedrock, and you can see it during the winter months, like the boilers on a train engine. Most of the coal industry in western Maryland is dead now; they mined most of the ‘good coal’ right up through the 70’s. Now most of the mine shafts are reclamation projects.
Time to eliminate the phony CO2 regs.
Trump's District Court nominees are more of a mixed bag, mostly because the blue slip policy is still being honored for these nominations.
Was this in Wales, Pennsylvania, or Wyoming?
Some interesting threads on twitter recently coal ash maybe full of some nasty stuff but it also maybe full if the new gold if you will, aka rare earth elements. The R & D fir extraction is going to be s hot area, it already us in AU, rhey have funky gell that looks like thick ginger ale that they are using to extract lithium. In fact, the MIT paper I stumbled upon a while back is getting tangent traction as well, and that is coal might be better processed to extract the rare earths, hard carbon etc, rather than burning it. Food for thought....
Good for Trump
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