WASHINGTON — The Bush administration plans today to unveil its long-awaited rule cutting mercury emissions from power plants, the first such step by the federal government.
But the regulation already has drawn angry criticism from environmentalists, public health advocates and lawmakers who said it failed to protect the public -- especially young children.
Mercury that falls into lakes, rivers and oceans accumulates in fish tissue, and fish consumption has been linked to neurological and developmental damage. An EPA analysis has found that about 600,000 babies born in the U.S. each year may be exposed to dangerous levels of mercury in the womb, primarily from mothers who have eaten fish.
The Environmental Protection Agency says its target will be to cut emissions of the neurotoxin to 38 tons annually by 2010, a 21% reduction from 1999 levels, and to 15 tons by 2018, nearly a 70% reduction. EPA officials say they eventually will achieve these figures through a flexible, market-based plan that is the most effective and economical way to protect public health.
But critics, including state and local air-pollution regulators, have said far steeper reductions are possible and criticized the EPA for delaying reductions for decades at the behest of a politically powerful industry. They vowed to challenge the new rule in court.
"This is, without a doubt, the most dangerous, dishonest and illegal air pollution rule I have ever seen come out of the agency," said John Walke, a Natural Resources Defense Council attorney who previously worked for the EPA.
Current and former EPA employees said the new rule also failed to live up to administration promises to consider alternatives that would result in more rapid reduction of mercury emissions, a charge denied by administration officials.
EPA officials were hammering out final details of the rule Monday. But they disclosed a broad outline that was not expected to change. An environmental group provided a draft of the rule.
The rule would set a national, annual cap on emissions from power plants and allow individual companies to choose whether to reduce their own emissions or buy "credits" from other companies that do so. The EPA says this is designed to provide an incentive to cut emissions nationwide without mandating costly reductions from individual facilities.
