http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/Backissues/111103/111103gw.htm#1<snip>
President Bush's "Clear Skies Initiative" has been reintroduced in Congress but with key changes to mercury emissions requirements that are sure to please electric power utilities while angering environmentalists.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) yesterday unveiled a new version of the "Clear Skies" legislation calling for a less stringent cap on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. The bill would limit mercury emissions to 34 tons annually, as opposed to the 26-ton annual cap in the White House's original proposal.
For months, Inhofe and other Republicans have expressed concern that power plants could not meet the 26-ton mercury cap by 2010, as proposed in the original bill, S. 485. The White House gave Inhofe political cover to raise the mercury cap after the Council of Economic Advisers told lawmakers at a hearing earlier this year that new U.S. EPA data suggested the 26-ton cap may be too ambitious.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, say the higher cap would result in nearly seven times more mercury entering the environment than would be permitted under a Clean Air Act standard they envision will be proposed in mid-December by the U.S. EPA (Greenwire, Nov. 4).
Widespread agreement exists among regulators and scientists that mercury poses a serious health risk, especially to young children and women of child-bearing age.
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Inhofe is such a scourge on the environment.
s_m