The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is imposing new air pollution regulations for the taconite industry in northern Minnesota that go beyond state regulations. The Duluth News Tribune reports the new federal rules require plants to install technology to reduce smokestack emissions that cause haze and lung ailments.

U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack says new emissions standards enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency are a threat to Minnesota's mining industry. The rules are aimed at reducing the haze over northeastern Minnesota. Cravaack calls them an assault on jobs and says the federal government should let the state enforce pollution rules.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency signed off on a plan to dump more than 13 tons of taconite concentrate into Rush Lake. The lake association wants to reduce the level of phosphorus, which leads to growth of algae and invasive pondweed. It hopes the taconite experiment will do the trick. Audubon Minnesota had argued for an environmental review.

The federal agency is mulling new stricter standards for fine particles and ground-level ozone, and the state would have to respond with new strategies to meet them, some of which almost certainly will cost state residents more money. Those could include requiring more expensive reformulated gasoline at pumps and adding regulatory layers on businesses.

Output at the half-dozen taconite plants in the state is up more than ten percent compared to a year ago. And the forecast for next year suggests production could be the highest in more than a decade.