Maine to sue EPA over mercury emissions

[MaineDem]

Maine will join at least eight other states in a lawsuit calling for more aggressive restrictions on coal-fired power plants - considered the nation's largest source of mercury pollution and the primary reason Maine's lakes and freshwater fish are contaminated. The lawsuit will be filed in the next week or two, said Assistant Attorney General Jerry Reid.

Although a lawsuit pitting the state against the Bush administration is unfortunate, he said, "it's also necessary under these circumstances."

...

"The rule is carefully crafted to allow the industry to avoid installing new technology" to cut mercury pollution, Reid said.

Maine will be especially hurt by the rules, critics say, because the state is downwind of aging power plants to the south and west. Maine already advises that pregnant women and children not eat freshwater fish from the state's waterways, and is considered to have some of the most severely contaminated wildlife in the country.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/050329mercury.shtml

[tsuki]

1. Go Maine!

[nolabels]

2. I think the whole freaking world should LITIGATE against th EPA

Here, let me poison you so the people I am helping to protect can make more money :puke:

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. They should just change their name

to the Corporate Protection Agency.

[salin]

4. So sad that states, repeatedly, have to force the EPA

to do their job of protecting the environment.

I knew a lawyer of the Labor Dept back in the Reagan years, who claimed they spent all of their time... on lawsuits against the Dept of Labor for NOT doing their job of protecting labor.

[Trillo]

10. My father claims to have had a college buddy

who retired early from the FDA during the Reagan years because they started getting orders "from above" that certain drugs were to be approved and it outraged him.

[primavera]

5. Way to go, Maine!

You tell 'em, guys! :toast:

[Moderator]

6. kick to combine

[DeepModem Mom]

7. NYT/AP: Nine States Sue Gov't Over Mercury Rules

Nine States Sue Gov't Over Mercury Rules
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 29, 2005
Filed at 8:17 p.m. ET


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Nine states filed a lawsuit against the federal government Tuesday, challenging new regulations they say fail to protect children and expectant mothers from dangers posed by mercury emissions from power plants.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., said the reductions announced earlier this month by the Environmental Protection Agency, do not go far enough to satisfy Clear Air Act requirements.

The reductions aim to cut mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants by nearly half within 15 years, but opponents say the plan provides an out for the worst polluters by allowing them to trade ``pollution credits'' with cleaner plants.

``EPA's emissions trading plan will allow some power plants to actually increase mercury emissions, creating hot spots of mercury deposition and threatening communities,'' said Attorney General Peter Harvey of New Jersey, lead plaintiff in the case. ``It's an anti-human health position. The EPA is putting private profit ahead of public health, and it's a mistake.''...

***

The eight other states involved in the suit are California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-EPA-Mercury.html

[whistle]

8. They need to join forces with this class action group....

snip>

Lawsuit Filed for Mercury in Vaccines Causing Autism

An announcement was made today by the law firm of Waters & Kraus, the firm that filed the first known lawsuit alleging that a mercury preservative in children's vaccines caused neurological damage to an infant ultimately diagnosed with autism.

Waters & Kraus is leading a consortium of ten firms in as many states that are actively prosecuting cases of this nature (firms listed below).

<more>

<link> http://www.mercola.com/2001/oct/31/mercury_lawsuit.htm

[NVMojo]

9. Good for we have been lied to by the Bush administration, whores

for corporations and profit.

[Karenina]

11. Kick!

:kick:

[Pert_UK]

12. EPA To Drop 'E,' 'P' From Name....

"WASHINGTON, DC—Days after unveiling new power-plant pollution regulations that rely on an industry-favored market-trading approach to cutting mercury emissions, EPA Acting Administrator Stephen Johnson announced that the agency will remove the "E" and "P" from its name. "We're not really 'environmental' anymore, and we certainly aren't 'protecting' anything," Johnson said. "'The Agency' is a name that reflects our current agenda and encapsulates our new function as a government-funded body devoted to handling documents, scheduling meetings, and fielding phone calls." The change comes on the heels of the Department of Health and Human Services' January decision to shorten its name to the Department of Services"

http://www.theonion.com/index.php?issue=4112

[struggle4progress]

13. kick