New EPA Mercury Rule Called Illegal/Mercury Test Kit

BUSHGREENWATCH
Tracking the Bush Administration's Environmental Misdeeds
http://www.bushgreenwatch.org
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March 16, 2005

NEW EPA MERCURY RULE CALLED ILLEGAL

With the long-awaited release yesterday of its new rules for
reducing mercury pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency
set off a firestorm of protest and controversy that is certain
to wind up in the courts.

As expected, EPA announced new rules that would reduce mercury
emissions from coal-fired power plants 20 percent by 2010, with
a goal of 70 percent reduction by 2018. Environmental health and
other groups assert that greater reductions could be achieved
much more rapidly, and that EPA's decision will endanger the
health of hundreds of thousands of newborn babies.

Mercury is known to harm the brain and nervous system,
especially in infants. It can cause learning disabilities,
attention deficit disorder and mental retardation. One in six
U.S. women of child-bearing age is reported to have enough
mercury in her blood to put a developing fetus at risk. <1> The
primary means of exposure is through consumption of certain
species of deep ocean fish, such as tuna and pollock.

The Bush Administration is proposing a "cap and trade" system,
whereby a national limit on mercury emissions would be set, but
in which individual power plants could trade emissions credits.
This would mean some states would achieve reductions in mercury
pollution while others would actually experience an increase.

John Walke, director of the air pollution program at the Natural
Resources Defense Council, said this would result in enormous
increases in mercury emissions in certain states. For example,
an increase of 841% in California; 176% in Colorado; 241% in New
Hampshire; and 56% in New Jersey. <2>

Martha Keating, a former mercury expert at EPA who is now a
senior scientist at the Clean Air Task Force, joined others in
saying that proper enforcement of the current Clean Air Act
would be far more effective than the new mercury rule. "If the
Clean Air Act was implemented as it should be, we would get
significant reductions of mercury, upwards of 90 percent," she
said on National Public Radio. "So in our mind is
a rollback." <3>

"It is unconscionable EPA is allowing power companies to trade
in a powerful neurotoxin--it is unprecedented and illegal," said
William S. Becker, executive director of the bipartisan State
and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators. <4> Becker
also heads the Association of Local Air Pollution Control
Officials.

Recent criticism both by the EPA's own inspector general and by
the non-partisan Government Accountability Office alleged that
EPA ignored scientific evidence in developing its mercury rule,
and called for further analyses. A Washington Post article said
Agency staff charged that Bush Administration political
operatives set the framework of the rule in advance, to support
industry's claim that installing the newest air pollution
control technology would be too expensive. <5>

Because mercury pollution of the oceans is a global problem, the
UN Environmental Programme held an international meeting in
Nairobi last month in an attempt to set in motion a plan to
reduce the trade, mining and emission of mercury. The European
Union has already decided to phase out mercury-cell chlorine
production and close the largest mercury mine in Europe (located
in Spain).

But U.S. officials blocked any concrete actions, instead calling
for self-regulation, more studies, more discussion. Noting that
the EPA has defended its new rule by saying mercury pollution is
a global problem and therefore tighter controls on U.S.
coal-fired power plants wouldn't solve it, Michael Bender of the
Ban Mercury Working Group--a coalition of 27 public interest
groups from several nations--said "The Administration is talking
out of both sides of its mouth. Today they are saying the only
way to solve the U.S. mercury problem is through international
action. Yet three weeks ago they hijacked the process and
blocked development of a global strategy."

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SOURCES:
<1> CleartheAir.org fact sheet,
http://ga3.org/ct/qdzACmM1ez3I/.
<2> "Critics Say EPA Mercury Rule Rolls Back Protections," NPR,
Mar, 15, 2005, http://ga3.org/ct/q7zACmM1ez37/.
<3> Ibid.
<4> "Mercury Emissions to be Traded," Washington Post, Mar. 15,
2005, http://ga3.org/ct/qpzACmM1ez3u/.
<5> Ibid.