Leahy Offers Bill To Cut Mercury Pollution
Urges EPA To Close Mercury Gap In The “Clear Skies” Proposal;
Children And Pregnant Women At Highest Risk

On the heels of a long-overdue report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlining serious risks to pregnant women and children from mercury exposure, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) Thursday introduced a comprehensive bill to control mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and other sources.  Leahy highlighted the gap between the tougher standards of his “Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act” and the Administration’s “Clear Skies” proposal in reducing mercury pollution. [click here for section by section Leahy's bill]

“The only thing clear about the Administration’s proposal is that it won’t protect Vermont’s children from the pollution spewing out of power plants in the Midwest,” said Leahy. “The Administration’s Clear Skies proposal will actually relax current mercury emissions law.”

The Leahy-Snowe bill would reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by 90 percent.  It is the only comprehensive legislation to reduce mercury pollution from all major sources.  The Clear Skies proposal would only reduce emissions by 50 percent in the near future and 70 percent over the next 15 years.  The Vermont senator said that not only does that fall far short of the Leahy-Snowe proposal, but it also falls short of current law and the Administration’s previous position.  In 2001, EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman, responding to a letter from Leahy and Snowe, said the EPA had initiated  strict “maximum achievable control technology” (MACT) standards for oil- and coal-fired electric utility units as required under section 112 of the Clean Air Act.  At that time, Whitman said that mercury reductions are “necessary now, not decades from now.”   

Leahy said, “The new EPA report drives home the immediate need to reduce mercury emissions further.  The nine-month delay in releasing the report, and the delays built into the Clear Skies proposal, make you wonder whose interests the Administration is putting first – children, or the big powerplant companies?”

The Leahy-Snowe bill would reduce mercury sources from all sources, including commercial and industrial boilers, chlor-alkali plants and cement plants.  It also would require labeling of mercury-containing products to reduce mercury in the waste stream.    

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Click here for details of Omnibus Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 2003