Sun
Journal
Court
strikes down fed emissions policy
Rebekah Metzler ,
Staff Writer
Saturday, February 9, 2008
WASHINGTON
- Mainers, from environmentalists to members of Congress, lauded a federal
appeals court decision Friday that struck down a Bush administration policy
allowing some power plants to exceed mercury emission levels. The court ruled
that the government failed to consider the policy's effect on public health and
the environment.
Maine and 13
other states sued to block the Bush regulation, saying it would allow dangerous
levels of mercury into the environment. The toxic metal is known to contaminate
seafood that, when eaten, can damage the developing brains of fetuses and young
children.
"This ruling represents a significant victory for both the health of Maine people and our
natural environment," Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe said in a
statement Friday. "The courts have rejected a Bush administration attempt
to put the profits of corporate polluters above the health of the American
people."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia negated a rule known as cap-and-trade.
That policy allows power plants that fail to meet emission targets to buy credits
from plants that did, rather than having to install their own mercury emissions
controls. The rule was to go into effect in 2010.
The three-judge court unanimously struck down the cap-and-trade policy and the
federal Environmental Protection Agency's plan to exempt coal- and oil-fired
power plants from regulations requiring strict emissions control technology to
block emissions. Before instituting the new regulation, the court held, the
government was required to show that emissions from any power plant would not
harm the environment or "exceed a level which is adequate to protect
public health with an ample margin of safety."
The EPA argued it was not required to follow that rule, a stance the court held
was "not persuasive."
The agency defended the rule, saying it represented the nation's first attempt
to control such emissions and that it would reduce mercury emissions by 70
percent.
"Keep in mind, the U.S.
now has no national mercury emissions regulation for these plants," EPA
spokesman Jonathan Shradar said, adding that the EPA would consider whether the
cap-and-trade policy could be resurrected under a different regulation.
"It's good for America
and it's good for the environment. We want to be a global leader on this
issue," he said.
Industry organizations strongly supported the plan.
"The court's decision represents a major setback for federal efforts to
establish clear mercury regulations for coal-fired power plants," said Dan
Riedinger, a spokesman for Edison Electric Institute, an association of power
companies. "Now EPA has to go back to the drawing board, pushing mercury
regulations far off into the future."
High mercury levels in the state's fish, loon and eagle populations prompted
the Maine Bureau of Health to issue a statewide advisory in 1994 to limit fish
consumption for pregnant women and young children. The advisory remains in
effect because mercury levels have not diminished sufficiently.
"This is good news for every family in America,"
said Matt Prindiville of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, one of four
environmental organizations involved in the case. "It means that someday
our kids will be able to eat the fish they catch from our lakes and
rivers."
Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin. The National Academy of Sciences estimates
that 60,000 newborns a year could be at risk of learning disabilities because
of mercury their mothers absorbed during pregnancy. About 8 percent of U.S. women of
child-bearing age have enough mercury in their blood to cause concern for a
future pregnancy.
Members of Maine's
congressional delegation all support the federal court decision.
"Maine's
environment should not be for sale to the lowest bidder," Republican U.S.
Sen. Olympia Snowe said. "Today's decision underscores the lunacy of
having a standard that allows plants to purchase their way out of
compliance."
Snowe and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, sent a letter to the EPA last
November, along with other senators from the Northeast, in a bipartisan effort
to expedite mercury emission reductions. Collins has also co-sponsored a bill
with U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., that would create nationwide mercury
monitoring sites.
Democratic Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud of Maine joined the senators in approving the
court decision.
"The court has affirmed what Tom has said all along: The Bush rules do not
comply with the Clean Air Act," Allen's spokesman, Mark Sullivan, said
Friday.
Maine has
taken great steps to reduce mercury, but continues to suffer because of
out-of-state pollution, Michaud said.
Associated Press writers Cara Rubinsky in Hartford,
Conn., and Rebecca Santana in Trenton, N.J.,
contributed to this report.
