WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Tuesday proposed rules to force coal-fired and other fossil fueled power plants in the eastern half of the country to cut emissions that cause smog.
The Environmental Protection Agency rules would cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 71 percent from 2005 levels and nitrogen oxide emissions by 52 percent, according to an EPA document obtained by Reuters.
The rules, which overturn and toughen clean air rules made during the administration of former President George W. Bush, would take effect as soon as 2012, the EPA said. Bush's 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule sought to cut emissions with the use of environmental markets.
The agency estimated that the rules would cost industry $2.8 billion a year but yield $120 billion to $290 billion a year in public health and welfare benefits by 2014. Those benefits included the value of avoiding 14,000 to 36,000 premature deaths, the EPA said.
Whitey Stanco, an analyst at Concept Capital's Washington Research Group said the rules would eventually shut down the "smallest and dirtiest" coal-fired power plants.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Tom Doggett; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)
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