After scoring a Supreme Court victory this spring, the
Environmental Protection Agency can move forward with its strategy to cut air
pollution from coal-fired power plants in several states — and new research
suggests the impact could be lifesaving. Scientists assessed the effects of one
state’s prescient restrictions on plant emissions in a report in the ACS
journal Environmental Science & Technology. They estimated that the state’s
legislation prevented about 1,700 premature deaths in 2012.