Republicans score another symbolic defeat for EPA — this time over toxic coal ash

By Alexandra Duszak
4:46 pm, October 14, 2011 Updated: 8:10 pm, October 15, 2011

House Republicans on Friday succeeded in championing legislation that would wrest regulation of coal ash from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to the states, who will have the authority to regulate the often hazardous residue at power plants as if it were municipal garbage.

The Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News has examined the lack of federal oversight of coal ash and its dangers. As iWatch News reported, coal ash is full of neurotoxins like lead and mercury and the carcinogens such as arsenic.