Washington (Platts)--16May2007

A Bush administration rule designed to reduce mercury emissions from
coal-fired power plants came under fire at a Senate hearing Wednesday by
members of both parties who criticized the regulation as too weak to protect
human health and the environment.  

     Democrats and some Republican members of a Senate Environment and Public
Works subcommittee said the March 2005 rule issued by the Environmental
Protection Agency should be scrapped and replaced with a stricter rule.

     "Tighter mercury controls are achievable, affordable and reliable," Tom
Carper, a Delaware Democrat who chairs the Clean Air and Nuclear Safety
Subcommittee, said. 

     The power sector generally supports the rule, in part because it allows
utilities to buy and sell mercury-reduction "allowances" instead of installing
expensive pollution-control equipment at their own facilities. But a host of
states and environmental groups are suing EPA over the measure, saying its
trading provision violates the federal Clean Air Act.

     Oral arguments have not yet been scheduled in the lawsuit, though lawyers
involved with the case say that will likely occur sometime this fall. 

     Caper, whose subcommittee has jurisdiction over EPA, declined to say
whether he would seek to force the agency to issue a more stringent rule if
the current measure is struck down. But Carper noted that some 25 states have
opted out of EPA's trading-based mercury rule, and have instead adopted more
stringent laws. 

     Illinois, for example, decided to adopt its own aggressive mercury rule
because EPA's measure "does not go far enough or fast enough" in reducing
power-plant mercury emissions, said Douglas Scott, director of the Illinois
EPA, told the subcommittee.

     Some Republicans, including Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, expressed
concern that the stringent state rules would force utilities to switch from
coal to cleaner-burning but more expensive natural gas, resulting in higher
energy prices. 

     But Scott rejected that argument, saying Illinois' rule would add less
than $1.50 per month to the average residential electricity bill. 

		--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com