Trump order gives Minnesota taconite plants more time to cut mercury pollution

DULUTH President Donald Trump is giving Minnesota s taconite iron ore mines two more years to comply with a U S Environmental Protection Agency mandate to reduce their mercury emissions a rule that the Trump administration has already signaled it intends to roll back A proclamation Trump signed late Thursday evening states that the rule adopted by the EPA last March relies on technologies that have not been demonstrated to work in the taconite industry are untested at commercial scale or are not reasonably achievable The order was among a series of proclamations from the president granting two years of relief from regulations for coal-fired power plants and other polluting industries that the Trump administration considers overly costly and burdensome After more than two decades of lawsuits and pressure applied by tribes states and environmental groups the EPA imposed a rule last year requiring the state s six taconite mines and processing plants to cut mercury emissions by about beginning in U S Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs own and operate the facilities in northeast Minnesota where the taconite ore is dug out of the earth and then made into pellets in giant furnaces which are then shipped to mills around the Great Lakes to be transformed into steel Another facility is located in Michigan s Upper Peninsula Both companies have sued to block the rule They praised the Trump administration s move to delay its implementation until The proclamation will provide a reprieve from an onerous regulation that was put in place without regard to the technological feasibility of their implementation or the impact it presented to the domestic iron ore industry and thousands of good paying jobs these operations sustain commented Cliffs which owns three of the six taconite facilities on Minnesota s Iron Range and is majority owner and operator of a fourth U S Steel which owns two iron ore mines on the range including the state s largest Minntac called the president s proclamation fair reasonable and necessary and announced the EPA s rule is not supported by science and would impose unprecedented costs while setting technologically unachievable standards Taconite plant standards coming since With its U S Clean Air Act Congress required the EPA to set mercury emission standards for taconite plants by the year But the agency never did Since then tribes environmental groups and the state of Minnesota have pushed the agency to take action Those efforts culminated in the EPA s rule last year The requirements don t go far enough for Minnesota to reach its mercury air emission reduction goals declared Jim Pew who directs the federal clean air practice at Earthjustice They didn t really require the plants to do nearly as much as they could but they still would have taken a key bite out of the mercury emissions he mentioned That s what the Trump administration is trying to roll back right now Pew noted when the rule was adopted last year taconite plants were given until to meet the mercury reduction targets so they had time to install litter controls He announced Trump s proclamation pushes that date back to Meanwhile the Trump administration had already broadcasted in March that it was reconsidering the rule So what s really going on is that the Trump administration is telling these companies that they don t have to do anything now to start getting ready to control their emissions and in the meantime it s getting ready to get rid of the rules altogether so they never have to do it Pew explained Mercury is a neurotoxin that can be especially harmful to young children and infants in the womb It mostly enters the milieu in Minnesota through air toxicity from burning coal processing taconite and other sources Once in lakes and streams bacteria in the water convert it to a more toxic form called methylmercury which works its way up the food chain and accumulates in fish More than rivers and lakes in Minnesota are considered impaired for mercury meaning there are advisories recommending that fish from those bodies of water not be eaten more than once a week or month Taconite emissions prevent state from reaching goal The state has a goal to slash mercury emissions from levels by this year Essential progress has been made Mercury emissions have dropped by more than half largely because of the closures of coal-fired power plants or the installation of toxicity controls But the state did not meet its goal in large part because emissions from taconite plants have remained largely flat Iron ore mines now emit about half of the mercury poisoning in the state Minnesota Garbage Control Agency spokesperson Becky Lentz explained the state s ability to meet its mercury emissions reduction targets will require additional reductions from all sources including the taconite iron ore processing facilities We are continuing to assess how this presidential proclamation impacts our statewide mercury reduction goals but at a minimum the Trump Administration created additional regulatory uncertainty with the last evening s announcement she disclosed The EPA has estimated it would cost more than million over the next decade for the taconite industry to comply with its mercury emissions rule Related Articles Trump offers regulatory relief for coal iron ore and chemical industries Interior Secretary Burgum must personally approve all wind and solar projects a new order says Can artificial reefs in Lake Michigan slow erosion and boost fish population Researchers aim to find out Grand Canyon blaze shows how managing a fire can go suddenly sideways Nebraska sues neighboring Colorado over how much water it s drawing from the South Platte River It s economically doable Pew declared The only real obstacle is that the steel companies don t want to be decent neighbors and put on the controls that just about every other industry like the power industry has already put on But Kristen Vake executive director of the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota stated the extension will give taconite operations more time to find solutions She mentioned testing of trash control equipment is underway at Keetac a taconite facility operated by U S Steel in Keewatin This decision recognizes that the machinery isn t there yet and more time is needed she explained