Great Lakes Article:

Federal Regulations: Relaxing mercury emissions rule is wrong
St. Paul Pioneer Press
12/12/03

In the land of the walleye, of rivers and lakes rich in fish, it is worse than out-of-touch that the Bush administration has chosen to relax regulation of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Mercury is extremely toxic. In the food chain, as most fish-eating Minnesotans realize, mercury is a known health hazard.

We pay attention to the warnings about fish consumption. We take seriously the need to avoid ingesting mercury. We believe the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health experts who tell us that each year in the United States about 300,000 children are born with potential developmental problems because their mothers ingested mercury.

Yet the Bush administration, which on a range of environmental issues has shown no interest in anything but the saving or making of money by private businesses, thinks coal-fired power plants should not be held to a high standard for reducing mercury emissions.

It wants to unravel regulations in the works that force power plants to reduce mercury emissions extensively within three years by installing new control equipment. The administration is bowing to complaints from industry that the equipment is too expensive and that the regulation would force switches from coal to more costly but cleaner-burning natural gas to fire plants. The Bush plan gives the industry 10 years on equipment and lets polluters trade "credits." In some contexts, pollution credit trading makes sense. In this one, it does not. With a substance as toxic as mercury, a high-level polluter who has "bought" credits from a low-level one will create a hot spot in the nearby communities' air and water.

The proposed regulatory change came in an announcement last week from the Environmental Protection Agency in a larger consolidation of the administration's so-called Clean Skies approach to air pollution. Facing known resistance in Congress, the administration is aiming to implement as much of this program as possible by rule making.

That's its prerogative. But in places like Minnesota and Wisconsin, where environmental quality is important to our aesthetic and economic life, decisions like the one on mercury could resonate with voters come Election Day.