(Pardon my map’s appearance, it’s a work in progress.)
These are the power plants in (or within 100km) of Pennsylvania, that have been exempted, by executive order/proclamation, from new EPA rules on mercury and other toxic emissions. The new rules would have required these plants to reduce “MATS” (Mercury and Air Toxics Standards) emissions starting in July 2027; the proclamation gave these plants, and others across the country, a two-year reprieve on compliance — until July 2029. Click on the power plant on the map, you’ll see more info for that plant.
I created the map because I was interested in what the ecological and health effects of this exemption might be, but I kind of ran into a roadblock: I couldn’t find much information on current MATS emissions from these plants — they might not even be measured. So for now I just list some pertinent information, to me at least, for each facility. Among other things, I mention the main fuel type (mostly coal or coal refuse), and the number and types of boilers at each facility, because I think that these might indicate how dirty the MATS emissions might be — coal refuse is supposedly higher in mercury than regular coal, and circulating fluidized bed boilers can often handle even more problematic fuels like tires or municipal waste. (I didn’t include secondary fuels in my list, but Northampton at least lists tire-derived fuel, wood, and “other” among its secondary fuels.) I got this info from the EPA’s Clean Air Market Program.
I also included a link to each power plant’s web page in the Global Energy Monitor wiki, but to be honest those pages seem outdated and a bit unreliable.
Anyway, stay tuned for more information and improvements as I add/make them.