ENVIRONMENT WATCH:

EPA Inspector General Strongly Criticizes Bush Mercury Plan

Says Rule Fails to Protect Children’s Health

“Special interests trumped the science,” said Chris Fick, policy associate with MaryPIRG, in a prepared statement to the press. “The EPA Inspector General’s report shows that EPA staff were told to ignore legal requirements in arriving at a predetermined, politically-driven outcome.”

Senators Jim Jeffords (VT) and Patrick Leahy (VT) requested the report after press accounts revealed that entire sections of the Bush rule were lifted verbatim from electric utility industry memos.

EPA’s January 2004 proposal would delay meaningful reductions in mercury emissions from power plants until after 2025, whereas the Clean Air Act calls for the maximum achievable reductions, on the order of 90 percent, by 2008. The proposal has sparked unprecedented public opposition. EPA must finalize the rule by March 15, 2005.

“Once again, the Bush administration has cooked the books to undermine public health and environmental safeguards,” asserted Fick. “This isn’t the first time the Bush EPA has been brought to task by its own Inspector General.”

Power plants are the nation’s single largest source of mercury emissions. EPA scientists estimate that one in six women of childbearing age in the US has high levels of mercury in her blood, putting 630,000 of the four million babies born each year at risk of health problems due to mercury exposure, including learning disabilities, developmental delays, and problems with fine motor coordination.

Many environmental groups, health advocates and elected officials are strongly pushing for Maryland's General Assembly and the Governor to take action to help curb pollution from power plants. The “Four-Pollutant” bill would reduce emissions of mercury, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

“Passage of this bill at the state level is more important then ever, as it becomes increasingly evident that the federal government is not going to protect public health,” said Fick. “We instead have to look for the state government to help, and hopefully they will by passing the ‘Four-Pollutant’ bill as soon as possible.”