Ken Silverstein EnergyBiz Insider Editor-in-Chief

The Bush administration has long said that it supports efforts to cut those pollutants and that its initiatives would reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent from 1999 levels. Toward that end, pollution levels would be cut from 48 tons today to 15 tons over 20 years. It would do this through a series of actions that include implementing ceiling on such emissions beginning in 2010 as well as by establishing a cap-and-trade program to allow utilities that do better than the limits to sell "credits" to those that exceed the caps.

The utility sector says that this type of flexibility is needed to assure progress. It, along with the administration, won recent litigation when a federal appeals court turned down a request by some environmental groups and 14 states to delay the Bush initiative until more information is known. The U.S. Senate, meantime, voted this week to reject an effort to set aside the EPA's mercury power plant rule.

The president's plan "is a landmark requirement for 70 percent reduction in mercury emissions from power plants," says Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, which represents power generating companies. "There was no other rule to replace this rule. Instead, there would be years of litigation and further regulatory development that might -- or might not -- result in a rule that is more stringent."

Environmentalists counter that the plan enacted by the Clinton administration is more far reaching and would achieve better results in an expedited time frame -- 90 percent mercury cuts by 2008. They also say that a cap-and-trade program as it relates to mercury is a dangerous precedent, creating so-called hot spots. That's because plants that are unable to cut those emissions would buy credits to sidestep the ceilings and the concentration of such pollutants would occur in certain areas. They are insisting that the nation's 600 coal-fired power plants use the best available technologies.

"In many cases, most of the mercury can be cleaned up simply by using long-established technologies such as scrubbers," says Frank O'Donnell, head of Clean Air Trust in Washington. He adds that companies are trying to commercialize new equipment with regularity -- a point that the administration disputes, saying mercury controls are still commercially unavailable.

It is unlikely that any legislative attempt to delay or change the Clean Air Mercury Rule enacted in March would succeed, or at least while President Bush is in office. While such attempts are bi-partisan, the U.S. House is not philosophically disposed to deviate from the president's course of action. Even if a majority of lawmakers agreed to write new mercury laws, the president still has the right to veto any legislation.

The president emphasizes that the new mercury rules are the first time any administration has ever regulated those power plant emissions. The rule has two phases beginning with a cap of 38 tons in 2010, with a final cap set at 15 tons beginning in 2018. These are mandatory caps with penalties for noncompliance.

Mercury Controls

Coal-burning power plants remain the largest unregulated source of mercury air pollution, adding 48 tons of mercury into the air each year, contributing more than 40 percent of all mercury emissions in the United States. The pollutant is released when coal is burned and flows out of facilities' smoke stacks, then it falls into the ground and water.

Forty-five states have issued advisories warning people to limit their fish consumption because of mercury contamination. Nationwide, more than 10 million lake acres and 400,000 river miles are under mercury advisories. Mercury is particularly insidious because it stays afloat and it can be spread globally. The EPA estimates that about 50 percent of the mercury deposits in the United States emanate from local sources while another 40 percent comes from outside the country's borders, mostly Asia.

Both policymakers and utilities have been under pressure to do something about mercury. One of the results has been the introduction of new technologies that work to cut most pollutants, including mercury. Modern generators can limit those emissions but older plants are major polluters -- a fact that leads green groups to demand that those plants be phased out. But, those facilities are not going anywhere for now. And so the question becomes the degree to which mercury should be decreased and under what time frame.

Utility industry groups say that the president's plan can work. They point to a successful cap-and-trade acid rain program and furthermore argue that emissions trading will not create hot spots. The Electric Power Research Institute says that all states in the country will experience cuts in mercury pollution. The EPA adds the new mercury rules in combination with the Clean Air Interstate Rule that addresses sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide will produce no utility-induced hotspots.

"The effectiveness of cap-and-trade programs when it comes to managing costs, achieving results, and addressing local concerns has been demonstrated again and again," says Michael Rossler, Edison Electric Institute's manager of environmental programs.

Government Studies

But a bi-partisan initiative in the U.S. Senate says that the EPA regulation does not go far enough to address public health concerns. They point to studies by the Government Accountability Office and the EPA's own inspector general office that strengthen mercury rules so that reductions occur on an expedited time table. By all accounts, mercury is a dangerous toxin that damages the nervous systems of fetuses and children.

"Everything we've seen and heard from this administration amounts to delaying enforcement of the Clean Air Act and ignoring the resulting public health damage," says Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vermont.

The good news is that utilities are taking affirmative steps to cut emissions from mercury and other emissions such as particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. Two of the biggest coal generators in the country, American Electric Power and Cinergy Corp., for example, are installing technologies to cut pollution levels from all types of emissions at its power plants. Meantime, the state of Connecticut has enacted rules to cut mercury emissions from coal plants by 90 percent by 2008.

The national tenor to give proper consideration to environmental concerns is prompting modifications in laws. When it comes to mercury emissions, such change may not be as much as what certain lawmakers or environmental groups had hoped. But, new technologies will come to market and prove their mettle. In due course, mercury laws will evolve and more than likely become increasingly strict.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit:  http://www.energycentral.com .

Copyright © 1996-2005 by CyberTech, Inc. All rights reserved.