I'll trade you two baseball cards for your poisining levels
Mercury Emissions To Be Traded
EPA Criticized On Pollution Rule
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A01
The Environmental Protection Agency will issue a rule today to reduce mercury emissions from power plants through a cap-and-trade system that allows some power plants to make deep pollution cuts while others make none.
The rule sets broad national limits on mercury emissions that enable power companies to decide which plants will receive pollution controls -- meaning that even as many states reduce their emissions, some could see increases in emissions of mercury, a potent neurotoxin.
The rule is certain to be contested in court by environmental groups, which charge that it places the financial interests of power companies over public health and violates existing law on how the government must deal with dangerous substances.
Mercury is the third major pollutant produced by coal-fired power plants and other industries that the government has sought to limit because of accumulating evidence of their devastating effects on health. The EPA issued a rule last week to control the smog and soot produced by sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
The agency plans to offer a full justification for its approach today but defended it in broad terms yesterday.