08-E Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition (2)

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dgl:. i HVU: lViagaLUll: -.. IVicn.:ury Kismg nup:J Iwww.ume.~unu lllllel llIagaLIIlt:lpOIllUUUU,0010, I-J-J I-J..w,UU.nuUl 90% cut in power-plant mercury by 2008. President George W. Bush has discarded the Clinton rule in favor of a looser standard that would result in only a 70% reduction by as late as 2025. What's more, Bush weakened the Clean Air Act's new-source-review rule, which requires power-plant owners to install the best available pollution controls when they make major upgrades that result in increased emissions. Lately, however, the courts have been pushing back. In March a federal circuit court in Washington strengthened the new-source-review requirements by refusing to sanction a loophole that the Environmental Protection Agency (EP A) had introduced, and last month a circuit court in Chicago forbade a move by the Cinergy power corporation to measure its pollution output hour to hour rather than year to year, because the hourly standard often produces a lower, less accurate reading of emissions. In November the US. Supreme Court will address the same measurement question in a case out of North Carolina Ail those battles technically address smog and soot, not mercury, but where the first two go, the third follows. "Power plants are the 800-lb. gorilla," says John Walke, a project director with the Natural Resource Defense Council and a former attorney for the EP A. "Their [mercury] output is extraordinary." But while much of the environmental mercury in the US. comes from power plants, the other dominant source is cWor-alkali plants, which manufacture chemicals used in soaps, detergents and other products. Me>.I"..~ than 25% of the U.S. total blows in from overseas, particularly from coal-gobbling countries like China Illinois Senator Barack Obama has proposed two bills to address those problems. One requires the eight cWor-alkali plants in the US. that still use mercury to convert to a less toxic alternative by 2012. The other calls for a ban on US. exports of mercury starting in 201 O--a significant move, since the US. sells as much as 300 tons of the metal a year, or 8% of the world's total. More than a dozen state governments across the U.S. are getting ahead of Washington with mercury controls of their own. Foreign governments have also acted. "Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan have been reducing their use of mercury for five to 10 years," says Linda Greer, a member of the EPA's science advisory board. The good news is, once mercury is removed from circulation, it needn't trouble us again. As long as it's held in double-hulled containers and kept relatively cool to prevent evaporation, it is largely inert. "It's my favorite chemical for what you can fmally do with it," says Greer. "It will sit placidly in a warehouse at under 70 degrees." It's a remarkably quiet end for a remarkably dangerous metal--an end that can't be too soon in coming. With reporting by With reporting by Coco Masters Copyright Q 2006 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. F',;.'"c., Pnli".' -_._-_..~-.-.-_.... 1f3 9/6/2006 7:46 PM P '-"r