Our state senators are wearing their white hats as they round
up the posse against mercury contamination in Idaho. I hope
Gov. Risch will saddle up with them.
I’m rooting for these heroes because I know there’ll be
another mercury-spewing coal-fired power plant proposal here
in the Magic Valley in spite of the fact that Sempra Energy is
out of the headlines.
The Senate is asking for Idaho to opt out of a federal program
that would allow huge amounts of mercury pollution to continue
to be generated within our country. It’s difficult for me to
understand how our federal government can allow our health to
be so jeopardized. Allowing new sources of mercury in Idaho by
participating in a federal shell game of pollution credits
would be an environmental mistake.
Our senators have seen the bad-guy poster on the wall. Gov.
Risch directs our Department of Environmental Quality, but
both are bound by Section 39-118B of Idaho Code — no rule can
be adopted by Idaho which is more stringent than the federal
Clean Air Act unless an analysis has supported it.
The DEQ has just started the process to create a five-year
plan for monitoring mercury levels statewide. Idaho should opt
out of the federal cap and trade program for now, because we
can always opt back in later if the five-year plan has room
for it. But if we opt in now, we won’t be able to opt out in
the future, and the coal-plants will come.
This stringency rule causes much inefficiency and trouble for
Idaho. I urge everyone to contact Gov. Risch and tell him that
we should repeal the stringency rule and opt out of the
federal mercury program. He should put on his white hat and
round up the House Legislature, too.
Copyright © 2006, Lee
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