"The Environmental Protection Agency finalized rules late Thursday to curb pollution from industrial boilers and cement plants, agreeing to give industry additional time for compliance and easing some emissions limits from earlier proposals."
"The new rules, which have been enmeshed in a fierce regulatory and legal fight for more than a decade, drew criticism from environmentalists.
Earthjustice staff attorney James Pew, who fought earlier versions in federal court, called the set of rules “an avalanche of bad news.”
For the first time, large boilers and cement kilns will face strict limits on mercury, acid gases and fine particulate matter, or soot. But the EPA will give boiler owners three years to meet the new standards, with a possible extension for another year after that, meaning they would take effect in 2016 at the earliest. Cement plants will not have to comply with the new limits until September 2015, two years after they were originally set to take place."
Juliet Eilperin reports for the Washington Post December 21, 2012.
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