REGULATION FLEES ON WINGS OF MERCURY

Often, important court decisions escape serious media attention. One such example may be the recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion concluding that U.S. EPA's regulation requiring power plants to reduce mercury emissions was improperly adopted.*

The federal Clean Air Act states that EPA can regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from power plants only if such regulation is "appropriate and necessary". In its rulemaking for mercury from power plants, EPA refused to consider the costs of compliance that would be imposed on the plants, finding that costs were irrelevant to "appropriateness" of such regulation.

The Supreme Court disagreed with EPA's interpretation the law. Accordingly, in this situation, proper regulation depends upon a comparison of the economic cost of compliance with the health or economic benefits. As Justice Scalia wrote for the majority: "The Agency must consider cost--including, most importantly, cost of compliance--before deciding whether regulation is appropriate and necessary."

The Supreme Court remanded the case to the lower court for further proceedings, thus imposing on EPA the obligation of reviewing and revising its regulation after consideration of a cost/benefit analysis that will meet the Supreme Court's requirement.

Mandating that administrative agencies consider costs and benefits in deciding whether and how to impose regulations would seem to be both rational and obvious. Perhaps the importance of the Supreme Court's decision may be that not only are compliance costs relevant but also potentially controlling as to the propriety of regulation. In that sense, cost/benefit analyst can be viewed as a means to mitigate possible agency over-reach and unreasonableness.

What could be interesting is whether the Court's ruling will have impact beyond mercury for all of EPA's efforts to dictate so-called climate change rules, particularly those related to carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Moreover, beyond air pollution, cost/benefit analysis logically should be relevant to all EPA rulemaking affecting water and wastewater utilities, it would seem.

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*Michigan v. EPA, 576 US __ (2015),June 29,2015

SWEET DREAMS

"You never oughta drink water when it ain't runnin'."

-----John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men


Whenever, we feel sluggish or drowsy, sometimes we reach for candy or other sweet for a sugar high and anticipated boost in alertness. However, according to a recent published report, our anticipation may be misplaced. It seems that a boost in sugar intake may actually put us into sleepiness.*

It is well established that a large meal, such as at Thanksgiving, can cause overeaters to fall asleep even over the blare of boring televised football games and clacking relatives. But, maybe we should not blame the turkey hormones for our drowsiness.

A new study in London shows that sugar promotes sleep instead of alertness. In the study, glucose was injected into the brains of mice. Certain nerve cells in mouse brains are sleep inducers. (I wonder if other cells are cheese graving producers). At any rate, the study shows that the glucose stimulated the sleep causing cells, and the mice promptly nodded off for a deep sleep. Indeed, the more the neurons detected sweetness, the stronger the resulting sleep.

According to the report, human sleep causing neurons appear to be similar to those of mice. One wonders, then, what to make of the quote from Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men": "Trouble with mice is you always kill 'em." If the cells of mice and men are similar, then a similar reaction to sugar may be expected appears to be the conclusion.

So, perhaps Mary Poppins was correct when she asserted that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. In this case, a spoonful of sugar also helps the eyelids go down. Pardon me, while a reach for a piece of candyyyyyy......ZZZZZZZZZ.

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* Sanders, "Sugar May Put You to Sleep, Science News,
August 8, 2015, p. 15

PLUTONIC RELATIONS

Planet or dwarf planet, or round blob of ice, or whatever--Pluto attracted a great deal of attention this summer when photos of it and its moon captured by NASA's space probe hit the media. They briefly replaced reruns of old sitcoms.

The pictures are said to reveal mountains of frozen water. Some have speculated that water is gushing below the mountains. Indeed, one project leader was quoted as saying that water exists in great abundance.

A question comes to mind: how did all that water arrive on Pluto? Recently, published reports have stated that the Earth's water came from bombardments of asteroids. However, photos of Pluto and its moon Charon appear to suggest crusts free of impact craters.

Will water on Pluto be harvested for the benefit of earthlings? Will large space tankers haul ice and water back to Earth? I suppose this is unlikely, if it takes 9 years over 3 million miles to go one way. On the other hand, harvested ice certainly will arrive melted after such travel.

But wait...there already is Pluto Water on Earth. "Pluto Water" was bottled spring water from French Lick, Indiana. It was available and sold from the early 20th Century until 1971 when its lithium content caused it to be labeled as a controlled substance. Pluto Water was famous for being a strong laxative due to its mineral salts. Claims were made that it was "effective" from a half hour to two hours after ingestion. Accordingly, one supposes that it quenched several needs.

Pluto was the Roman god of the underworld. Pluto also was a dog--the pet dog of Mickey Mouse. Both Pluto, the alleged planet, and Pluto, the alleged canine, were discovered in 1930. The assumption is that the alleged planet came first. Pluto, the dog, who is naked, of course should not be confused with Goofy, the dog, who tends to be clothed and also associated with Mickey Mouse and friends. Pluto is not Goofy.

Pluto, the round ball in outer space, is an unlikely destination for weddings or retirees in the near future. However, in addition to its water sources, it does offer the attractive benefit that global warming is not likely there. This should please scientists who may consider going there. It also is unlikely that any of us will drink Pluto Water anytime soon. So, while photos of Pluto's ice mountains were interesting, the only Pluto likely to cross our paths is Pluto, the dog. Beam me up, Pluto!