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US House passes bill to ease air quality standards for coal waste-fired plants

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill March 8 that would ease air pollution requirements for coal refuse-fired power plants.

H.R. 1119, or the Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act, was initially introduced by Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., as H.R. 3797 and passed through the House in 2016 but failed to move further under the 114th Congress.

The bill was later on reintroduced in February 2017 and is aimed at allocating additional sulfur dioxide allowances under the U.S. EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule to coal refuse-fired energy plants.

The legislation would give coal refuse-fueled power plants an alternative means of complying with the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. Under the bill, coal refuse-fired plants could use SO2 as a proxy for hydrogen chloride, or HCl, and assume that a 93% reduction in SO2 demonstrates compliance with the HCl standard under MATS.

According to a news release posted by the office of Rep. Rothfus, five coal refuse-fired power plants in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia are under threat of shutting down due to "rigid EPA regulations."

"I am proud that the House passed the SENSE Act (H.R. 1119)," said Rothfus in the release. "This bill is a commonsense solution to keeping these plants open and workers on the job so they can continue restoring the environment and improving community safety."

In mid-February, Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., also introduced a bill that would incentivize coal refuse clean up by giving tax credits to power plants that burn the waste as fuel.