EPA to Ease Cost of Regulation

WASHINGTON  – The Environmental Protection Agency is making
it much cheaper for companies to release toxic air pollution from
industrial boilers and incinerators.

In a vastly overhauled regulation obtained by The Associated
Press in advance of its release Wednesday, the EPA says it has
found ways to control pollution at more than 200,000 industrial
boilers, heaters and incinerators nationwide at 50 percent less
cost. That would save businesses $1.8 billion and avert thousands
of heart attacks and asthma cases a year.

Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have criticized the
EPA over the boiler rule, saying it would be too expensive for
industry.

A senior EPA official told the AP that cost wasn’t the driving
factor, but the changes made were driven in part by an executive
order to review burdensome regulations.