Court Strikes Down EPA's Plan on Mercury

Subject: Court Strikes Down EPA's Plan on Mercury Sun Feb 10, 2008 4:42 am

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court said Friday the Bush administration ignored the law when it imposed less stringent requirements on power plants to reduce mercury pollution, which scientists fear could cause neurological problems in 60,000 newborns a year.

A three-judge panel unanimously struck down a mercury-control plan imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency three years ago. It established an emissions trading process in which some plants could avoid installing the best mercury control technology available by buying pollution credits.

Environmentalist and health experts argued that such a cap-and-trading mechanism would create "hot spots" of mercury contamination near some power plants. Seventeen states as well as environmental and health groups joined in a suit to block the regulation, saying it did not adequately protect public health.

Power plants are the biggest source of releases of mercury, which finds its way into the food supply, particularly fish. Mercury can damage developing brains of fetuses and very young children.

The court decision was the latest in a string of judicial rebukes of the Bush administration's environmental policies. The Supreme Court last year took the administration to task for not regulating greenhouse gases. Courts have also rejected administration attempts to overhaul federal forest policies and streamline fuel economy standards for small trucks.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that the EPA violated the federal Clean Air Act when it scrapped a mercury-control policy established in December 2000 under the Clinton administration. Utilities were required to install the best available technology to capture mercury from power-plant smokestacks.

That policy was anticipated to capture more than 90 percent of mercury releases. The cap-and-trade approach imposed by the EPA in March 2005 envisioned capturing 70 percent of emissions by 2018.

The court held that the EPA failed to show that its new approach would not harm the environment or that emissions at all plants not "exceed a level which is adequate to protect public health with an ample margin of safety."

"This three-judge panel has done the world a favor and helped save lives," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, whose state participated in the lawsuit.

EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said the agency was reviewing the decision, but he indicated it was not giving up on the cap-and-trade approach to reducing mercury.

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Court Strikes Down EPA's Plan on Mercury

Court Strikes Down EPA's Plan on Mercury

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