The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association says its members are concerned about what tight compliance deadlines and other provisions in the Utility Mercury Air Toxics Standards will do to rural consumers' electric rates.
The new rule, first released late last year by the Environmental Protection Agency after more than 20 years of study, was recently made final.
"Electric cooperatives support efforts to improve air quality that effectively promote environmental objectives without unnecessarily raising costs for the end-use consumer or compromising reliability and safety. On these grounds, EPA's Utility MATS rule misses the mark," said NRECA CEO Glenn English.
He said non-profit co-ops are disadvantaged in competing with for-profit utilities to hire engineers and get equipment to meet the standards.
"We believe EPA used flawed methodology in determining the standards for existing power plants; and unfortunately the MATS rule also includes unachievable emissions limits for new power plants," English said.
