Reaction Of Senator Patrick Leahy
To The Administration’s Retreat From Mercury Reductions

[(WEDNESDAY, Dec. 3) – Several news organizations Wednesday reported that the Bush Administration is on the verge of approving a proposal to reverse an earlier EPA/Clinton Administration December 2000 decision to regulate mercury emissions under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act.  The 2000 decision launched the writing of new requirements for utilities to meet Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards that would have reduced mercury emissions by 90 percent.  Utilities would have had until December of 2007 to meet these standards.  The Bush Administration proposal, reported today in the Washington Post and the New York Times, reverses the 2000 decision by arguing that mercury pollution should not be regulated under Section 112 because, the Administration now says, “there are no confirmed health effects of mercury pollution.”  Instead of requiring utilities to adopt mercury controls at individual power plants, the Administration’s draft proposal would allow utilities to trade the right to emit mercury into the air. Sen. Patrick Leahy(D-Vt.)  for many years has been Congress’s leader in pushing for mercury reductions and led a coalition of senators that successfully pushed EPA in 2000 to begin writing the mercury regulations for power plants. On Wednesday Leahy released the following statement about the Administration’s impending reversal of the mercury rules for power plants:]

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“Once again the Bush Administration is catering to industry wishes, letting big polluters off the hook at the expense of the public’s health.  Never before have the big polluters had this kind of clout in any previous White House, and they are cashing in, big time.

“The Administration claims this reversal will give power plants more flexibility to reduce mercury pollution faster, but it really gives them the flexibility to ignore the dangerous health effects of mercury and the new technologies now available to control it.  Downwind states like Vermont will continue to  reap more mercury pollution for decades to come while corporate polluters soak up more profits.  We know who the biggest polluters are when it comes to mercury emissions, and the Administration is preparing to let every one of them off the hook.

“This makes it a triple whammy that the Administration has delivered this fall to the Northeast.  First it let these same big polluters out of the enforcement cases.  Then it promised them big new subsidies in the energy bill.  And now it is letting them buy their way out of cutting back on mercury pollution their smokestacks pump into the air that drifts over Vermont and the Northeast.

“Administrator Leavitt promised a kinder and gentler EPA two months ago when the Senate confirmed him.  That’s not what we’re seeing in his first major decision.  We know that mercury is harmful, especially to children.  We have the technology to control mercury pollution.  I call on Administrator Leavitt to reconsider this rollback.”

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