We wrote yesterday that the true costs of carbon — in health and environmental impacts — is far greater than the government figures. It turns out that the true costs of mercury and toxics pollution from power plants — regulations which the EPA recently tightened — is also far greater than the government had estimated.

The Senate, in welcome moment of sanity, has voted down an amendment backed by House Republicans — led by the chair of the House Energy Committee, Fred Upton — to permanently ban the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.

With the very real prospect of a nuclear meltdown in Japan, Mother Jones published a graphic that shows that coal is, by far, the most lethal form of power on a lives-per-terawatt basis. It’s an important reminder: Earlier this week, the EPA proposed new Clean Air limits on utilities and the industry has unleashed its lobbyists to cry wolf in Congress.

Coal-fired power plants generate more air pollution than any other industrial source, but they are among the last industry to be affected by amendments to the Clean Air Act passed two decades ago. The EPA is preparing to announce long-delayed regulations for electric utilities on March 16.

A new report by the EPA evaluates the predicted regulatory costs and benefits of implementing 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments over the next decade. The results are, well, breathtaking.

In an ongoing effort to forestall carbon regulations, the new Republican House is agitating to cripple the Environmental Protection Agency. Newt Gingrich went so far as to call for the agency to be scrapped.