EPA's move to regulate mercury emissions rejected

LA Times ^ | 2/8/08 | Judy Pasternak

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court today struck down a market-based effort by the Bush administration to regulate emissions of mercury from coal- and oil-fired power plants, agreeing with critics that the Environmental Protection Agency had violated the Clean Air Act when it established the rule.

A coalition of environmental groups and 17 states, California among them, challenged the policy, which was slated to take effect in 2010. The EPA had planned to establish a mandatory national cap on mercury emissions and then allow power plants that fail to meet their targets to buy credits from less-polluting plants.

Environmentalists have criticized this approach because mercury tends to accumulate near its source, rather than dispersing like other pollutants that have been regulated under so-called cap-and-trade mechanisms. Cap-and-trade has been used for sulfur and there are proposals in Congress to use that form of control for the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Mercury "hot spots" could endanger children living near power plants that use the credits to send extra pollution into the air, the challengers said. Mercury is a powerful toxin that can cause nerve and brain damage.

The three-judge panel agreed unanimously with the challengers' view that the rule would not adequately protect the public.

[NormsRevenge]

.. but a simliar coalition of environmental groups has no problem doing their darnedest to have the incandescent bulb outlawed and billions of CFC bulbs substituted in their place, bulbs which are in and of themselves tiny ticking time-bombs that contain the very same "poison", mercury, they fought so hard to win a victory against here.

It is a strange new ecoFRiendly world, indeed.

[billybudd]

I guess these days the phrase “market-based” means communist centrally planning.

[boomop1]

I remember when I was a Lab chief at a PMEL Lab a technician broke a manometer we had mercury all over the place. The funny part is the Mercury sniffer didn't pick anything up after we cleaned up what we could find.

[tacticalogic]

No mercury credits? Okay. Now explain why carbon credits should be any different.

[Rick.Donaldson]

The funnier thing is that the Hazmat guys didn’t come in, close the place for three months, and make you all go through massive medical tests.

I remember playing with a bottle of mercury as a kid, rolling it around in a bowl, putting my fingers in it, and pushing it around with my fingers... but I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine I’m fine...

[Fiddlstix]

Seems like it.

[boomop1]

This was in 1979 or 78 there was no HAZMAT of which I now am a member although retired.

[Jacquerie]

Judges, our own druid class rule, not our elected representatives and President.

[Eagle Eye]

In 78, 79 mercury wasn’t lethally toxic if you just looked at it.

[Rick.Donaldson]

I know, that’s what I was saying... haha

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

bookmark

[AFPhys]

I have about ten pounds of Hg. It is great to play with. The dangers are greatly overstated.

[Rick.Donaldson]

I know. :) Now if you have a mercury thermometer and break it, they call out hazmat and close down the building you’re in until it is cleaned up. I saw that happen recently here in Colorado in a school.