MERCURY RULE:
Leahy-Snowe 'Dear Colleague'
On Upcoming Senate Vote On Resolution Of Disapproval
August 24, 2005
[Below is the
“dear colleague” letter sent Wednesday (Aug. 24) by Sens. Patrick
Leahy (D-Vt.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) to all senators, urging
support for the resolution of disapproval on the Administration’s
controversial rule on mercury pollution. The resolution, which
invokes the Congressional Review Act (CRA), will be brought to the
Senate Floor for a debate and vote during the first two weeks after
the Senate reconvenes in September, following the August recess.
This will be only the third time since its enactment that CRA will
have been used to attempt to override an agency rule. Contact:
David Carle, 202-224-3693. The text of the Leahy-Snowe letter
follows:]
August 24, 2005
Dear Colleague:
We are writing to urge you to support Senate Joint Resolution 20
when it comes to the floor soon after Labor Day when the Senate
session resumes.
Filed under the authority of the Congressional Review Act, S. J.
Res. 20 is a privileged resolution that would halt implementation of
the Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial mercury rule – a
rule which would delay and weaken mercury emission standards
required by the Clean Air Act. This resolution would give EPA the
chance to fix these flaws and come back with a rule that would
better protect the American people and the nation’s streams, rivers,
lakes, air and wildlife.
Earlier this year EPA issued two new mercury emissions rules. The
first rule reverses a December 2000 finding by EPA which concluded
that "mercury emissions from electric utility steam generating units
are ... a threat to public health and the environment" and that it
therefore is “necessary and appropriate” to require that each power
plant apply technology to reduce toxic mercury emissions. That
reversal has the effect of exempting all coal- and oil-fired power
plants from the requirement to use maximum achievable control
technology (MACT) to reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants,
including mercury, not later than 2008. Such an exemption is
permissible only if the Administrator follows the delisting process
established in the Clean Air Act, which EPA did not.
In lieu of the specific statutory directive to control toxic mercury
emissions using MACT, EPA’s second rule creates a toxics pollution
trading program that would not require any mercury-specific
pollution reductions until 2018, at the earliest. This is despite a
recent GAO report which found that there are cost-effective controls
that would make it possible to achieve 90 percent mercury emission
reductions. Such a rule leaves hundreds of plants using antiquated
control technology for two or more decades and significantly
increases the risk of toxic hotspots downwind of such plants.
The toxicity of mercury has been proven time and again by scientists
here and around the world. EPA’s own scientists found that some
630,000 infants were born in the United States in a 12-month period
in 1999-2000 with blood mercury levels higher than what is
considered safe. This is a doubling of previous
estimates. The National Academy of Sciences has confirmed
scientific research showing that maternal consumption of unsafe
levels of mercury in fish can cause neuro-developmental harm in
children, resulting in learning disabilities, poor motor function,
mental retardation, seizures and cerebral palsy.
A recent study by Mt. Sinai Center for Children's Health and the
Environment added further evidence that EPA’s plan to delay mercury
emissions reductions is woefully inadequate to address the real
threats that mercury poses in the daily lives of ordinary
Americans. The report calculated that the United States loses $1.3
billion annually in productivity from mercury emissions from U.S.
power plants. And an EPA-funded, peer-reviewed Harvard University
study recently found that more stringent limits on power plant
mercury pollution are both cost-effective and necessary to protect
public health.
Mercury emissions have also contaminated ten million acres of lakes
and 400,000 miles of streams, and they have triggered advisories
warning America’s 41 million recreational fishermen that the fish
they catch may not be safe to eat. Furthermore, evidence continues
to mount that mercury causes reproductive problems in wildfowl
populations, such as loon and mallard ducks. Other fish-eating
wildlife populations are at risk as well.
Regrettably, EPA has ignored this large and growing body of
scientific evidence that controlling toxic mercury is achievable and
warranted now, not a decade from now. The simple truth is that this
rule will allow more mercury into our environment longer than does
the current law. S. J. Res. 20 will ensure that the health and
safety of the American people are fully considered, before EPA
rescinds its commitment to protect public health from the dangers of
mercury pollution. To leave EPA’s mercury pollution rule in place
is a risk to the public’s health that we need not, and should not,
accept.
We urge you to support S. J. Res. 20. The Senate must send the
message that the Clean Air Act is to be interpreted and enforced in
a manner to expedite, not delay, protection of public health and the
environment.
Sincerely,
Patrick J.
Leahy
Olympia J. Snowe United States
Senator
United States Senator
