Forced Compliance on Mercury RULESMERCURY: Senate Democrat's bill would spur new power plant rules (02/13/2008)
Katherine Boyle, E&E Daily reporter
Just days after a federal court struck down the Bush administration's cap-and-trade rule for mercury, Delaware Democrat Tom Carper plans to introduce a Senate bill aimed at forcing power plants to clean up emissions of the toxic metal.
Carper's legislation would require U.S. EPA to write a rule aimed at a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by 2010, using available technology like activated carbon injection and fabric filters. By contrast, EPA said the rule struck down by the court would have achieved a 70 percent reduction in mercury emissions by 2018.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the administration's 2005 regulation last week, saying it violated the Clean Air Act by exempting power plants from stricter regulations governing hazardous air pollutants in favor of a more flexible cap-and-trade program (Greenwire, Feb. 8).
"The federal appeals court has concluded that the EPA failed to fulfill its duty to protect the public health under the law when they issued the Clean Air Mercury Rule," Carper said in a statement yesterday. "My legislation will ensure that does not happen again."
Carper's bill -- the "Electric Utility Steam Generating Unit Emissions Control Act" -- says reducing mercury emissions could save the United States more than $5.2 billion per year by avoiding health problems linked to the metal.
The legislation would force the EPA administrator to write regulations within 180 days of the bill's enactment.
Last year, Carper introduced the "Clean Air Planning Act," S. 1177, that advocated cutting mercury emissions 90 percent by 2015.
But that legislation was not included in a bill package by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) that would set economy-wide limits on heat-trapping greenhouse-gas emissions. Carper considered offering his bill as an amendment to the Lieberman-Warner measure, but he backed down because it did not have adequate support on the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Click here to read Carper's bill.
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