Georgia’s top environmental regulator says his agency is adjusting to what he called the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “new interpretation” of an Obama-era coal ash disposal rule.
House Republicans want to stop Indiana businesses from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement on their employees, even if the company owner believes a vaccinated workforce is best for the business.
the epa is scaling back requirements for the storage and release of toxic waste from coal-fired plour plants. the coal industry has said obamma-era rules are too costly to them. but critics and environmental groups say the proposed new regulations put profits ahead of public health. joining us now is cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. tell us what the ramifications of this are. well, it s exactly that. that s been the debate almost all along. the concern about human health versus increased profits for these coal companies. look, when you burn coal, you make waste. that s been a concern since we ve started burning coal. and the question has been what to do with that waste. typically there are these ponds, coal ash ponds they call them, and there s tons of them around the country. many of them along these rivers in north carolina, for example. for a long time they ve been these unlined pits in the ground. what the previous ruling said is
you have to start lining these pits. so stuff can t seep from these ponds into the waterways. and, two, is that eventually you have to work towards closing them. getting rid of these coal ash ponds altogether. news new technologies to get rid of the waste. things like that. what is happening now is basically saying we re going to basically delay much of that, reverse some of it. these ponds don t necessarily have to be closed now for another eight years until 2028. some of the requirements on lining them have been diminished as well and that s been the concern. let me tell you in terms of human health, what the concern is here y did the obama administration put some of these proposals into place was because of the concern from the fine particulate matter from coal ash, for example, getting into the air, getting into the water. you can take a look at the list there but this was a concern. premature deaths in people with heart or lung disease, nonfatal heart attacks, irregular heartbeats