Attorney General Josh Kaul pulled Wisconsin out of a multi-state lawsuit today that challenged an Environmental Protection Agency analysis regarding increased regulations on hazardous air pollutants.
The lawsuit was filed because Murray Energy Corporation claimed the EPA cost-benefit analysis regarding mercury emissions contained inaccuracies about the true cost associated with implemented its desired regulations.
The report from the EPA claimed the new regulations wouldn’t cause companies to suffer financially, but Murray refused to comply because he claimed would require them to purchase new technology which wasn’t included in their cost projections.
The EPA’s report also projected that implementing the technology would result in $30–90 billion in public health benefits by reducing pollutants. Following Murray’s challenge, the EPA proposed new rules deeming the previous regulations of the pollutants inappropriate, according to a press release.
“Our Department of Justice should be working to protect our environment and our health, not challenging a rule that protects our clean air from hazardous pollutants like mercury,” Kaul said.
Experts agree that expanding emissions regulations will improve health outcomes and likely benefit the economy by creating more jobs in renewable energy –– contrary to what Murray Energy argued.
“There’s businesses that produce dirty energy that would emit mercury, and there’s businesses that wouldn’t emit that because they’re doing renewable energy,” Gregory Nemet, a professor at the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies said. “Right now, there are a lot more jobs in renewable and clean energy than there are in dirty energy.”
Murray Energy Corporation, the largest underground coal mining company in America, has a history of dissenting from EPA regulations, particularly under the Obama Administration. According to their website, Murray Energy Corp. won a lawsuit in 2016 that claimed the EPA Obama oversaw was negligent of job losses and displacements caused by its regulations.
Murray Energy v. EPA is one of several lawsuits that Kaul has sought to remove Wisconsin from, including litigation to repeal the Affordable Care Act because of his increased power after the repeal of lame duck session legislations.
State News Editor
