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Evergreen
Yak Addict
960 Posts |
 Posted - 03/23/2004 : 12:06:08 PM
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Feds may extend mercury cleanup deadline
By John Heilprin
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is leaning toward stretching out plans for reducing mercury pollution from power plants until 2018 after concluding that technology for quick cuts isn't available. Some plants would be able to buy their way out of reducing emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency had offered options three months ago for reducing the 48 annual tons of mercury emitted from 1,100 coal-burning power plants, the largest source of the pollution. One favored reliance on a short-term technology, the other long-term market forces through which companies could buy rights to continue polluting from companies that do more than is required.
Studies co-sponsored by the Department of Energy and the utility industry have found there was no existing technology to remove mercury equally well from various types and grades of coal. EPA officials say that makes the first option to reduce the pollution to 34 tons by 2008 less feasible.
That leaves the second strategy -- endorsed by industry -- that would establish a nationwide cap of 15 tons on mercury pollution by 2018 by phasing in lower ceilings on each plant's pollution. Plants that reduce their pollution below a yet-to-be-determined ceiling for each one could sell credits to plants that don't.
High doses of mercury can cause neurological damage, and the government warned last week that some fish in which the toxic chemical accumulates can pose a hazard to children and pregnant or nursingwomen.
"The debate is what's the best option, given the available technology. And we think that, given the state of technology, cap-and-trade is better -- and we're leaning that way," EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said.
EPA can turn to that approach only because the Bush administration decided in December that mercury should not be regulated as a toxic substance requiring maximum pollution controls, reversing a Clinton administration ruling
To meet a court-ordered deadline, the agency must issue a decision by the end of 2004.
The idea of trading pollution rights rather than making every plant reduce emissions to a specified level coincides with a position endorsed by electric power producers.
"There currently is no commercially available mercury-specific control technology," said Dan Riedinger, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, representing utilities. "Our hope is that toward the end of this decade, we will have at least identified new technologies for removing mercury from different coal types and using different boiler configurations."
The agency's preference means some plants may have to make only modest reductions, if any, if they choose to buy emissions credits instead of installing pollution controls. That approach differs radically from the Clinton administration's conclusion that mercury could be cut by more than 40 tons annually by 2008 if the best available technology were used.
But that conclusion was based on an assumption that technology for removing acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide and smog-forming nitrogen oxides would, as a side benefit, also cut mercury emissions sharply.
"It is possible to get a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions in certain coal types and certain boilers, but to then make the jump and assert a 90 percent reduction is possible across the entire industry is simply impossible," Riedinger said. "The actual range of reductions varies, from between about 17 percent to 90 percent."
Carol Browner, the Clinton EPA's administrator, disputed the utility industry's claims of technological shortcomings.
"We had evidence that you could get there. ... It is possible. It is doable," Browner said at a recent news conference held by health advocates and environmentalists on the mercury issue.
She said the agency should set emission limits at the lowest level achievable "rather than asking industry, 'What do you feel like doing?'"
Browner and environmentalists also complained the cap-and-trade approach would let some facilities continue to emit mercury at high levels, creating mercury "hot spots" for nearby populations.
EPA's own Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee wrote Administrator Mike Leavitt in January to advise him "the cap and trade program, as proposed, may not address existing hot spots and may create new local hot spots for mercury, disproportionately impacting local communities."
The NRDC sued EPA in 1992 claiming it failed to determine which utility emissions are hazardous air pollutants and decide whether or not to regulate them. The suit was settled in 1994, then modified in 1998 to set deadlines for action on specific pollutants.
"Just as we did with lead, we have to take mercury out of commerce," said Linda Greer, an environmental toxicologist at NRDC.
On the Web
EPA: www.epa.gov/mercury
EEI: www.eei.org
NRDC: >www.nrdc.org
EPA can turn to that approach only because the Bush administration decided in December that mercury should not be regulated as a toxic substance requiring maximum pollution controls, reversing a Clinton administration ruling
Maybe its just my mood after finding out I'm paying in $4000 dollars in income taxes this year or the fact that I lost a very close family member this week, and then continual reports like this.... Sometimes the only thing that keeps me sane is nature. The thought of it being murdered by the infamous fuck head is just too much to take sometimes.
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dan p.
Alien Abductee
Uganda
3776 Posts |
Posted - 03/23/2004 : 6:43:26 PM
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| i fucking love mercury. |
death to false metal. |
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Zachmozach
Fluffy-Esque
USA
1534 Posts |
Posted - 03/23/2004 : 7:12:34 PM
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| Ya it's hard not to just go completely insane. I heard a report that some insurance company in europe was predicting that insurance rates would double in the next 20 years do to the effects of global warming. Then oil companies are going to be cutting down on the production of oil to conserve it. We're at our peak in production and you'd think that this would be a major issue of concern as oil is pretty nessesary for our society to function (or should I say disfunstion) the way it does. So I'm thinking hey we're not that far away from having some more threats to the surrvival of the species here. If we continue this way we are almost done. Nobody really seems to care though, or either that they're so brainwashed that they just don't know about it. Hopefully more people will realize what's going on though. |
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Evergreen
Yak Addict
960 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2004 : 11:42:43 AM
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Dan said:quote:
i fucking love mercury.
Those little jiggling blobs ARE hard to resist aren't they? I like mine on toast except it keeps falling off when I take a bite. |
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Arthen
Alien Abductee
USA
4845 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2004 : 1:22:01 PM
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In the voice of Ralph Wiggum:
"Mercury tells me the temperature!" |
Steve Hackett: "I'm my own opening act, you see."
Tim (before "Faceoff"): "Peace, love....and SEX!"
cbenc41@hotmail.com |
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dan p.
Alien Abductee
Uganda
3776 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2004 : 11:01:03 PM
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| i like to freeze it and forge a hammer that desecrates fallen angels. |
death to false metal. |
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PJK
Alien Abductee
USA
4159 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2004 : 09:55:44 AM
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Brenda, I lost your email address and I am sure it is not the one listed here, unless it changed again. Anyway, email me if you get time.
I am so very sorry for your loss. I have lots to tell you, please email me!
Pam  |
"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!"Friedrich Nietzsche |
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Evergreen
Yak Addict
960 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2004 : 11:10:00 AM
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as long as its not any bad news PJK, I'll email! I'm still recovering from last week and hiding out with my eyes closed tight and my hands over my ears.
(and seriously considering moving back to St. John, USVI where it was all good news everyday)!
I'm heading to Toronto for a few days on Wed. this week so I may not respond to an email too quickly, but send away anyway. It would be nice to get something other than SPAM and offers to make my cock bigger.
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Definition of Terrorism
