EDF Joins Dozens of States, Cities, Power Companies, Medical Associations and Clean Air Advocates to Ask the Supreme Court to Uphold Life-Saving Mercury and Air Toxics Standards

(Washington, D.C. – February 26, 2015) Environmental Defense Fund and a broad coalition of leading medical associations, the NAACP, and environmental groups filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in support of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

“The public health gains this rule will achieve—and in particular those from its dramatic reduction in overall national emissions of pollutants such as mercury, chromium, cadmium, nickel and hydrochloric acid gas—place it among the most important air pollution regulations this country has adopted,” the groups said in their brief. 

The landmark U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards establish the first-ever national limits on some of the most dangerous types of air pollution emitted by power plants, including mercury, arsenic and acid gases. Those substances are all highly toxic to humans; mercury, in particular, causes brain damage in children.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards in April of 2104. Opponents then asked the Supreme Court to review the decision. 

EPA filed its brief defending the standards yesterday, as did a group of 21 U.S. states and cities, and a group of power company respondents — including Calpine, Exelon, National Grid, and the Public Service Enterprise Group — who support the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

EDF joined the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Lung Association, American Nurses Association, the American Public Health Association, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, the Clean Air Council, the Conservation Law Foundation, Earthjustice, Environment America, the Izaak Walton League of America, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Ohio Environmental Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, and the Waterkeeper Alliance in strong support of the life-saving standards. You can read the brief here. 

You can find more about the history of the case and all other legal briefs on EDF’s website.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are scheduled for March 25^th.