August 3, 2004

Clean Air Council Press Statement On "Reel Danger" Report Concerning Mercury Levels In Fish

Michael Fiorentino, Esq.:

Thank you. Good Morning. My name is Michael Fiorentino, and I'm the Air Program Manager for Clean Air Council, which adds its voice to the grave concerns raised by our coalition partners. The Council works through regulatory oversight, advocacy, and education to advance the causes of clean air, clean energy and environmental health.

Today's report, "Reel Danger," contains the ominous data from EPA's National Study of Chemical Residue in Lake Fish Tissue that 86% of fish caught in Pennsylvania lakes exceed current "safe" levels of mercury. This level of contamination is not unexpected given that Pennsylvania ranked third in an analysis of recent EPA data on mercury levels in precipitation.

We know the mercury is in the fish. We know it's in the rain. And we know power plants are the primary source. Most other industries had to control their mercury emissions by an average of 90% in the last decade. But the utility industry is using its weight with the Bush administration to cut itself a much better deal, postponing significant reduction of this potent neurotoxin for 15 more years or even longer.

The Administration's power plant mercury regulation met the federal court-ordered deadline of December 2003, perhaps the only positive thing to be said about it. The regulation turns the Clean Air Act on its head. Instead of the Maximum Achievable Control Technology to reduce mercury in 2008, which should be in the vicinity of 90%, the EPA proposes a regulation expected to deliver a 29% reduction by 2010 and a 69% reduction by 2018. Independent analyses of the impact of the regulation, including by the federal Energy Information Administration, show that such reductions would not be achieved under the regulation until as late as 2025, and perhaps not even then.

It is not a question of technology. EPA itself estimated in 2001 that a 90% mercury reduction from power plants was feasible. But in this Administration, politics and money drives policy, not science and public health. The EPA's tortured analysis of the Clean Air Act in the mercury regulation attempting to justify these weak, long-postponed power plant reductions contains yet another appalling feature--trading. Even though hazardous air pollutants, such as mercury, have never been included in emissions trading programs under the Clean Air Act because it has been deemed prohibited, the Administration's regulation nonetheless proposes to allow it. Through trading, some communities bearing the brunt of mercury deposition from old, dirty power plants will be condemned to accept this poison in their air and waterways far into the future, as the plants will have the option to buy emission credits instead of taking any action at all to reduce mercury emissions.

The Council stands against trading of hazardous air pollutants as a matter of law and of environmental justice. We oppose the EPA regulation as written and urge the agency to take it back and follow the law. The report "Reel Danger" also makes this recommendation, explains the current condition of the nation's fish, and contains the guidelines women and children must follow when considering a meal. Because we know the lengthy damage this power plant mercury regulation poses to the safety of fish, an otherwise excellent source of protein, the Council is among the more than 600 thousand Americans who refuse to take the bait.