UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

WASHINGTON, DC 20460 

AUG 11 2011 


OFFICE OF 

AIR AND RAOtA 10 

The Honorable Eldon Long 

Mayor of Lowell 

216 North Lincoln Street 

Lowell, Arkansas 72745 

Dear Mayor Long: 

Thank you for your letter of July 12, 2011, to Administrator Lisa Jackson, expressing concern over 

potential impacts of the proposed "National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants from 

Coal- and Oil-fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units and Standards of Performance for FossilFuel-Fired Electric Utility, Industrial-Commercial-Institutional, and Small Industrial-CommercialInstitutional Steam Generating Units" (the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule, MATS), which was 

published in the Federal Register on May 3, 2011. The Administrator asked that I respond on her behalf. 

We appreciate your interest in ensuring these standards are flexible and cost-effective, and we will 

consider your comments as we proceed with the rulemaking. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency carefully analyzed the issue of electric supply, working 

closely with the Department of Energy (DOE). Our modeling shows that these proposed standards 

would result in relatively smaU changes in the average retail price of electricity, primarily due to 

increased demand for natural gas, keeping electricity prices below 1990 levels. This translates into a 

1.3 percent increase in residential natural gas prices and a consumer electricity price increase of 

approximately $3-4 per month. 

The proposed standards, which will save thousands of lives and prevent tens of thousands of asthma and 

heart attacks, are both reasonable and achievable, and many sources already are meeting them. Investing 

in pollution control at power plants creates high-quality American jobs in manufacturing steel, cement, 

and other materials needed to build pollution control equipment, and in installing, operating and 

maintaining that equipment. The EPA estimates this proposed rule will provide employment for 

thousands by supporting 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term utility jobs. These 

jobs would be distributed nationwide, in proportion to the number of coal-fired units that need upgrades. 

The EPA, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the DOE will work with entities whose 

responsibility is to ensure an affordable, reliable supply of electricity, including State Utility 

Commissions, Regional Transmission Organizations and the National Electric Reliability Council to 

share information and encourage them to begin planning for compliance and reliability as early as 

possible. This will ensure orderly, affordable compliance with the proposed standards. Energy efficiency 

investments that achieve moderate levels of energy demand reduction in compliance strategies can also 

substantially cut total emissions control costs for the power sector. 

Internel Address (URL) • hUpl/www epa gov 


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With regard to the compliance period, the Clean Air Act gives existing units three years to comply. State 

and local pennitting authorities (rather than the EPA) are allowed, under certain circumstances, to 

provide for an additional year and the EPA will support this pennitting authority flexibility where 

appropriate. 

Again, thank you for your letter. It will be placed in the public docket for this rulemaking. I appreciate 

the opportunity to be of service and trust the information provided is helpful. 

Sincerely, 

Gina McCarthy 

Assistant Administrator