Washington D.C., Mar 22, 2019 / 04:32 pm (CNA).- A proposal to ease regulations on mercury pollution levels in the air fails to show proper respect for human life and health, said the heads of two committees at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Friday.
“The proposed change to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule is troubling since it is well-documented that pregnant mothers and their unborn children are the most sensitive to mercury pollution and its adverse health effects,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-life Activities.
Archbishop Naumann was joined by Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Florida, who heads the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development in voicing concern over the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed changes to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, decade-old regulations that have led to an 85 percent decrease in mercury emissions at coal-based power plans.
The EPA believes it is no longer “appropriate and necessary” to regulate mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants.
It says the rules are unnecessarily expensive and is suggesting a change in the way that the costs and benefits of the regulations are calculated, in response to a 2015 Supreme Court ruling in which the justices instructed the EPA to consider the costs of the regulations to determine whether they are justified.
President Donald Trump has called the Obama-era standards a “crushing attack on American industry,” saying they threaten miners, energy workers and companies.
Advocates of the regulations say they are necessary to protect the air quality from mercury contamination, which is known to cause brain damage and birth defects in children.
“The MATS rule reflects a proper respect for life of the human person and of God’s creation – a great example of the integral ecology called for in Laudato Si’,” said Bishop Dewane.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
It may be that the changes to the mercury regulations are bad.
If, however, the bishops didn’t speak out on so any subjects that are only tangentially related to morals or are reflexively left-wing, and focused more on being shepherds, perhaps when they did speak it would have more effect.
So many, not so any. Sorry.
You can blame Trump for the easing of regulations. Everywhere you look the key administration secretaries of EPA, Interior and Energy were advocates of rolling back ecology improving measures by Obama. Trump, a champion of the church, calls global warning a hoax. He has to go.
“Global warming” (shame on you, you’re not using the latest approved term) is a hoax.
I remember when they were terrifying us in the 1970’s with the absolutely certain scientific consensus of global *cooling*.