News Archive
NPR Broadcast Features Professor McCabe on Plans to Weaken Mercury Emissions Regulation
01/03/2019
NPR and WBUR’s January 3 “On Point” program features IU McKinney Professor of Practice Janet McCabe discussing the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest proposal to roll back emissions standards for coal and oil generated power plants.
On December 28, the EPA announced that limiting mercury and other toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants is not cost-effective and should not be considered “appropriate and necessary.”
The announcement signals a major shift in the economic analysis the agency uses to establish regulations, giving less weight to potential health benefits of air pollution restrictions and more to costs incurred by industry.
“This is hugely significant,” McCabe said, of the plan to reverse the Obama-era standard.
Professor McCabe led the Office of Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration and played a lead role in framing, shaping and implementing Clean Air Act standards, including the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
Professor McCabe was also interviewed for a story that aired January 2 on Indiana Public Radio affiliates regarding the reasoning behind MATS and the potential impacts of the policy reversal on public health, nationally and in Indiana.
Professor McCabe is Assistant Director for Policy and Implementation at IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute. She is also a Senior Law Fellow with the Environmental Law and Policy Center. She previously served at the EPA as the Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation from 2013 to 2017, and was nominated by President Barack Obama to be Assistant Administrator of that office. She joined EPA in November 2009, serving as the Principal Deputy to the Assistant Administrator of OAR.
