EPA Delays Mercury Utility Rule Until March 2005

Mail this story to a friend </mail_dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=24959> |
Printer friendly version </avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=24959>
USA: April 30, 2004

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday delayed
finalizing rules to reduce harmful mercury emissions from aging power plants
until March 2005 to consider whether stricter rules are needed.

The EPA faced a Dec. 15 legal deadline to finalize the rules, which -- as
written -- would require utilities to reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent
by 2018. Mercury contaminates water and seafood, and has been linked to
neurological disorders in infants.
EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt said final rules will be delayed by four
months because of "the complexity of the issue and the desire to assure that
it's done in the proper and informed way." The agency extended a public
comment period set to end on Friday.
Democrats and environmental groups have complained that the rules are weak
and make too many concessions to industry.
The delay stems from an offer this week from the Natural Resources Defense
Council, the environmental group that sued the EPA in 1997. That lawsuit
spurred the EPA to draft its mercury proposal.
The NRDC said it would permit a delay if the agency would rethink the
proposal it originally released in late January.
The nation's 1,100 coal-burning power plants emit about 48 tons of mercury
each year, the largest unregulated U.S. source.
The EPA had proposed two possible ways to reduce emissions -- a
cap-and-trade system, and requiring utilities to install "maximum achievable
control technology" at plants.
Both options are still under consideration, Leavitt said. "We will do what
analysis is needed to assure that the proper decision is made," he told
reporters on a telephone call.
Critics say the Bush administration shunned traditional rule-writing
procedures and allowed utility officials to dictate terms to the detriment
of public health.
"The rule wasn't even written by the EPA -- it was written on K Street,"
said Sen. James Jeffords, Vermont independent, referring to the Washington
street lined with lobbyist offices.
"The Bush Administration has lost sight of its obligation to protect public
health and safeguard the natural environment," Jeffords said, calling for
tighter standards.
Utility lobbyists cautioned the EPA not to enact rules that were too strict.
"We think a two-thirds reduction in a decade and a half is a pretty steep
cut in (mercury) emissions," said a spokesman for the Edison Electric
Institute, a utility lobbying group.

Story by Chris Baltimore


Tarah Heinzen
Sierra Club Conservation Organizer
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
(515) 251-3995
[log in to unmask]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]