EPA's mercury emissions plan takes more hits

EPA's mercury emissions plan takes more hits

Apr 13 - Salt Lake Tribune, The

WASHINGTON -- Minority party senators continued their volley of scathing letters to the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday over a proposal to regulate mercury emissions from power plants.

EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt has been bombarded with demands from lawmakers, including a handful of Republicans, who want him to yank the proposed rule amid evidence that lobbyists for electric utilities that would be regulated by the new provisions helped write key parts of the rules.

Six Democrats and one i ndependent sent a letter Monday to EPA Inspector General Nikki Tinsley asking her to open an investigation into "procedural improprieties" of the development of the mercury rule, which Leavitt has championed as "a better way" to reduce pollution from the toxin that poses serious health risks to children and pregnant women.

"The administration's credibility and EPA's independence in making these decisions about mercury are so dubious by now that only a top-to-bottom review can get to the bottom of this," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who signed the letter with Sens. Jim Jeffords, independent -Vt.; Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; Barbara Boxer, D- Calif.; Tom Carper, D-Del., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Added Boxer: "We need to know if the EPA cut corners, ignored science or otherwise catered to special interests in industry to weaken protections against mercury poisoning."

Specifically, the three-page letter asks Tinsley to report back why the EPA failed to perform a comparative analysis of regulatory options as required by executive order, whether EPA staffers were directed not to follow statutory requirements in the rulemaking. if White House reviewers "scrubbed" the rule's language to downplay the health risk of mercury, whether the EPA has retaliated against senior career staff who criticized the rule and why the rule contains verbatim language from utility industry memos.

The investigation request follows a letter last week from most of the same senators asking Republican leadership for a Senate oversight hearing into the development of the mercury rule, which was the first major announcement of Leavitt's EPA tenure shortly after he took the helm of the agency in November. A tri-partisan group of 45 senators sent Leavitt a letter earlier this month asking him to withdraw the proposed rule because of undue industry influence, as have 10 attorneys general from northeastern states.

Leavitt is expected to respond to questions about the mercury rule controversy during his first speech as EPA administrator to the National Press Club at a Wednesday luncheon, expected to be broadcast live on the cable network C-SPAN.

csmith@sltrib.com