New Policy on Mercury Pollution Was Rejected by Clinton EPA

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 — The Bush administration's new proposal to regulate mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants is essentially the same as one discussed and rejected by the Clinton White House, former Clinton Environmental Protection Agency officials said Monday.

E.P.A. officials ruled in December 2000 that since mercury was a human neurotoxin, it had to be regulated as a hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act. That decision meant that individual power plants needed to be regulated.

The Bush proposal that was introduced on Monday would allow companies to buy and sell the right to emit mercury pollution, without any mandatory controls on individual plants. The administration and industry groups have pushed for a market-based approach to reducing mercury because they say it would be more flexible and cost effective.

Critics were skeptical.

"The Clinton administration evaluated the same approach that the Bush administration is now relying on and found that it was not legally supportable under the Clean Air Act," said Gary Guzy, an E.P.A. general counsel under Mr. Clinton.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2003/12/16/politics/16MERC.html

And no republican gives a shit about our health or the environment, Bush only cares about the corporations who pollute, help corporate business'...and now we have to pay to clean em up with our tax dollars...not the corporate polluters.

Mercury was such a big problem in Ohio that there were Lake Erie fish advisories all the time.

I got an intimate demonstration of the Mercury situation while I was working at the OEPA - Div. of Air Pollution Control a few years ago. My supervisor ask me to monitor the regular conference calls with neighboring states. It quickly became obvious that while neighboring states were implementing programs to reduce Mercury discharges and raise public awareness, the policy in Ohio was to ignore it in the hope that it would go away. I remember a conference at which a spokesperson from OEPA told the group that even though the law required recycling of florescent lights, it probably would not be enforced, especially on small businesses.

I think it has something to do with the Mercury in the coal that the power plants use.

By the way, there is going to be an announcement about the mercury and other rules tomorrow in Cleveland:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=3367

The EPA administrator, Region V administrator, and Ohio's own State EPA administrator, Chris Jones will be there.

My Mercury Links:
http://home.columbus.rr.com/lfairban/Pages/Mercbook.html

Mercury is a terrible and unnecessary pollutant from coal plants. Except that coal plant owners are W's buddies.

Remember when he promised to regulate mercury during the debate with Gore?

That lasted, what, 2 months?

:puke:

s_m

of lies and broken promises. I sure hope our candidate brings up ALL of them.