EPA opens mercury rule to comment on utility levels, legal issues

Washington (Platts)--21Oct2005

The US Environmental Protection Agency Friday said it would allow
additional public comment on the first-ever rule to control mercury emissions
from the nation's coal-fired power plants. The agency finalized in March a
rule that would cap mercury emissions at 15 tons/year beginning in 2018 and
create an emissions-allowance trading system to help utilities comply. 

     The new rule took effect in May and an EPA spokesman Friday said the
reopening of the comment period would have no effect on the rule's status.

     EPA said it would give the public another opportunity to comment
on the rule's revision of the Clean Air Act's section 112 governing hazardous
air pollutant controls and emissions cap-and-trade mechanism. The agency said
it would also accept further comments on how EPA will "assess the amount of
utility-attributable mercury levels in fish tissue," their public health
implications and "legal issues underlying the decision."

     The 45-day public comment period will begin after a notice is
published in the Federal Register. EPA also said it will host a public hearing
two weeks after publication of the notice, the agency said.

     Environmental groups and some members of Congress had criticized the rule
for having protracted deadlines and weak caps that would result in some parts
of the country experiencing higher levels of mercury. The opponents preferred
cutting mercury emissions by requiring coal-fired power plants--the nation's
largest stationary source of the neurotoxin--to install pollution control
equipment. 

     The electric power industry favored the agency's cap-and-trade approach
to controlling mercury but raised concerns about EPA's methods and procedures
for monitoring and reporting mercury emissions and that the rule permits
states to opt out the trading program.

     Parties challenging the Clean Air Mercury Rule, including environmental
groups, the electric utility industry and a sector of coal producers, filed
their concerns with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 
Circuit this spring. A request for a stay was denied in court. 

     EPA had indicated earlier this year that it would take additional
comments on some aspects of the rule. "Though it's possible there could be
changes to the rule as a result, we will operate on the assumption that the
regulation is going forward as scheduled," said a spokesman for the utility
lobby, The Edison Electric Institute.

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