December 21, 2011, was an historic day. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the first-ever national standards for mercury and other air toxins emitted from power plants.  Until now, there had been no national limits on mercury and many other poisonous emissions from coal- and oil-fired electric generation plants. In 1990, Congress passed science-based updates to the Clean Air Act that gave EPA the authority to regulate toxic air pollution from electric power plants.

The health standards—delayed for 22 years by lobbyists and lawyers paid by the coal and oil industries—take effect immediately and will be fully in place in 2016. Dirty coal-fired power plants (power plants are the biggest source of mercury emissions that damages our fish, wildlife, and children’s health) will have to reduce their emissions of mercury by 91 percent.

Mercury is a potent brain toxin, especially dangerous to children and developing fetuses. The new standards will reduce air pollution in amounts that are expected to save some 11,000 lives every year, and reduce mercury and other air toxins that can cause nerve damage, brain damage that limits children’s ability to think and learn, premature deaths, heart attacks and cancer.

Get more details about the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

Last week, the EPA issued the first-ever national standards for mercury and other air toxins emitted from power plants.