Mercury Rising
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2015
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How should the EPA weigh costs when regulating toxic emissions? Dahlia Lithwick speaks with lawyers on both sides of a Supreme Court case posing that question. And she reviews the highlights of a case testing the limits of free speech on license plates.Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at http://slate.com/podcast.plus
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi and welcome to Amicus, Slate's podcast about all things Supreme Court and the law. |
| 0:08.3 | I'm Dahlia Lithwick, Slate's Supreme Court correspondent, and there was a lot of action this week at the highest court in the land. |
| 0:14.1 | Later on in the podcast, we'll talk a little bit about specialty license plates in Texas and Justice Anthony Kennedy and what he thinks of gridlock in |
| 0:22.2 | Congress. But first we're going to turn to one of the high profile arguments this week. |
| 0:27.5 | Michigan versus EPA has to do with the challenge to part of the Clean Air Act that was brought |
| 0:32.0 | by Michigan and 21 other states along with several mining and utility companies. |
| 0:36.9 | They'd sued the Environmental |
| 0:38.1 | Protection Agency claiming that new regulations aimed at reducing mercury, arsenic, and other |
| 0:43.1 | hazardous pollutants from coal-fired power plants were enacted without proper consideration of the |
| 0:48.6 | costs. The Challenged Clean Air Act rule enacted over 20 years ago says that if these substances are shown |
| 0:55.7 | to harm human health, the EPA, quote, shall regulate the major sources of these pollutants where |
| 1:00.9 | it is, quote, appropriate and necessary. Remember that appropriate and necessary. It's going to |
| 1:05.7 | become important. But Michigan and the other states claim that the costs involved in cutting |
| 1:10.6 | their emissions would be crippling, $9.6 billion, according to the briefs, and the benefits infinitely smaller, may be $4 to $6 million in savings. |
| 1:19.6 | The EPA for its part puts the dollar amount on benefits at between $30 and $97 billion, claiming these regulations would prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks every year, all resulting from this kind of pollution. |
| 1:35.4 | A lower court upheld the EPA's regulations set to go into effect next month. |
| 1:40.6 | Joining us now to discuss the case is Peter Glazer. |
| 1:49.0 | He's a partner at Troutman Sanders, LLP in Washington, D.C. Mr. Glazer served as counsel of record for one of the petitioners in this litigation, the National Mining Association. |
| 1:55.0 | Peter Glazer, welcome to Amicus. |
| 1:57.0 | Thank you very much. |
| 1:58.0 | Thanks for having me. |
| 2:00.0 | Peter, I wonder if you could start us off |
... |
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