Air Regulators Push
for Stricter Plan To Cut Mercury Pollution
November 15, 2005 — By John Heilprin, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — State and local air
regulators unhappy with the Bush administration's approach to mercury
pollution offered a competing plan Monday that would require
coal-burning power plants to cut mercury emissions more deeply and more
quickly and would raise home electric bills throughout the East and
Midwest about a dollar a month.
Their plan would require utilities to reduce their combined 48 tons a
year of mercury pollution by 80 percent by 2008, and by 90 percent to 95
percent by 2012. It relies on state-of-the-art technologies such as
injectors that feed activated carbon dust into the exhaust vents. The
carbon attracts mercury particles, which are filtered out.
Forty percent of all U.S. mercury pollution comes from coal-fired power
plants. Mercury, a neurotoxin, concentrates in fish and poses the
greatest risk of nerve damage to pregnant women, women of childbearing
age and young children.
A new rule adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency in March set a
nationwide cap on mercury pollution and put a ceiling on allowable
pollution for each state starting in 2010.
The agency said it aimed to cut mercury pollution by 70 percent by 2018,
but lets individual plants avoid cleanups by buying pollution allowances
from plants well under the allowable limits. As a result, the EPA
estimated, utilities could realistically be expected to cut their
mercury pollution in half by 2020, down to 24.3 tons. Deeper cuts would
take a few more years. The EPA estimated its plan would cost utilities
and users of electricity $750 million a year by 2020.
The twin trade groups for the State and Territorial Air Pollution
Program Administrators and the Association of Local Air Pollution
Control Officials said their "model rule" for states to adopt would add
$1 a month to the average household's utility bills. But they said they
lacked a national cost estimate for their plan.
States can adopt their own plans for reducing mercury pollution as long
as they surpass federal standards.
"The public is willing to pay the cost of a lunch at McDonald's in order
to ensure that the fish they eat is free from mercury," said Bill
Becker, the groups' executive director.
"We don't need Congress' permission. We don't need EPA's permission.
These are tools states and localities can use," Becker said. "Given the
amount of extreme disappointment and concern with EPA's rule, the states
are telling us they're very confident they will adopt many of these
provisions."
The Bush administration has repeatedly argued that requiring all or most
plants to install the latest technology controls is too costly.
"EPA believes its cap-and-trade rule is the best approach to protect
public health by reducing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants
while maintaining fuel diversity and energy security," agency
spokeswoman Eryn Witcher said Monday.
Witcher said the air regulators' model rule "could potentially shift
large segments of the nation's generating capacity from coal to natural
gas if it were adopted in a significant number of key
electricity-generating states. Such a shift could result in increased
natural gas prices to consumers due to supply shortages."
David Foerter, executive director of the Institute for Clean Air
Companies, whose members make the controls and monitoring systems, said
the air regulators' plan "better reflects the capabilities of mercury
control technologies" than the EPA's approach.
John Paul, president of the local regulators' trade group and supervisor
of a Dayton, Ohio-based regional air pollution control agency, said the
EPA had ignored an expert panel's conclusion that tougher controls were
needed.
Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council,
which represents electric utilities, said the air regulators' plan was
unwise.
Source: Associated Press
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