Clean Air News

As the new home of WISPIRG's environmental work, Wisconsin Environment can be contacted with any questions regarding this report.  

MADISON—As the Bush administration renews its call for Congress to pass its stalled "Clear Skies" bill, a new Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG) report finds that a loophole in the fine print of the bill could exempt 39 percent of the nation's coal-fired power plant units from regulation, allowing them to emit toxic mercury indefinitely.

In Wisconsin, the loophole could exempt 24 units, 62 percent of Wisconsin's coal-fired power plant units, from regulation. The exempt units collectively emit 295 pounds of mercury into the air each year - 13 percent of Wisconsin's power plant mercury emissions.

"Very small amounts of mercury can go a long way. Scientists have found that just a single gram of mercury, about a drop, deposited over the course of a year was enough to contaminate the fish in a Wisconsin lake. This loophole is serious business for the millions of Americans who fish," said Bruce Speight, Field Director for WISPIRG.

The bill's (S.131) mercury loophole, tucked in the definition of an "affected unit," would exclude from regulation power plant units that emit 30 pounds (13,620 grams) or less of mercury per year, including units that are part of a multi-unit power plant that as a whole emits more than 30 pounds of mercury per year. EPA has performed no analyses to date on the effects of this loophole on public health or the environment.

WISPIRG's "The Fine Print" uses EPA data from 1999, the best data available on power plant mercury emissions, to examine the scope of this loophole. Key findings include:

• The loophole could exempt 39 percent (441 of 1,120) of the nation's mercury-emitting power plant units from regulation. These 441 units collectively emitted 4,971 pounds of mercury into the air in 1999.
• In Wisconsin, the loophole could exempt 24 units, 62 percent of Wisconsin's mercury-emitting power plant units, from regulation. The exempt units emitted a total of 295 pounds of mercury into the air in 1999 - 13 percent of Wisconsin's power plant mercury emissions.
• The loophole could let entire plants off the hook for cleaning up their mercury emissions. Wisconsin's Pulliam plant contains 6 units that collectively emitted 77 pounds of mercury into the air in 1999, yet the entire plant could get a free pass on mercury controls because none of its units individually emitted more than 30 pounds of mercury.

The report also notes that the loophole could create a "perverse incentive" for power plants to reduce mercury emissions at individual units just enough for those units to fall under the 30-pound threshold - and "off the regulatory radar screen."

"Not only does the bill let power plants buy and trade the right to pollute toxic mercury, but it lets some polluters off the hook entirely. It makes a bad bill even worse," said Speight.

For those plants that have to clean up, the "Clear Skies" bill gives the plants until 2018 before requiring specific action to reduce their mercury pollution by repealing the Clean Air Act's requirement that every power plant reduce its mercury emissions to the maximum extent by 2008. EPA acknowledged in a 2001 presentation to the electric utilities' trade association that compliance with existing law would reduce mercury emissions by about 90 percent.

Exposure to low-levels of mercury can cause learning disabilities, developmental delays, lowered IQ, and attention deficits in children and heart attacks and other problems in adults. EPA scientists estimate that one in six women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her body to put her child at risk, should she become pregnant.

Power plants are the single largest source of U.S. mercury emissions. About one-third of the mercury deposited in the U.S. comes from U.S. power plants, according to EPA data, and mercury deposition can be much higher near individual power plants. Wisconsin has posted health warnings for mercury covering every lake statewide and every river statewide. These advisories urge people to limit their fish consumption.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee rejected the "Clear Skies" bill on March 9, but President Bush called on Congress to pass the bill that same afternoon, and administration officials have since redoubled their efforts to pass the bill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing on the legislation on April 21; the bill has not yet been introduced in the House.

In addition to its mercury provisions, the bill would delay until well after 2018 reductions in power plant sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that the Clean Air Act calls for by the end of the decade; repeal the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program, which requires the oldest and dirtiest plants to eventually meet modern pollution standards; prohibit states from taking action to crack down on pollution from out-of-state sources; and force residents of heavily-polluted areas to wait longer for clean air than under current law.

"It's a bill that only polluters could love," said Speight. "Wisconsin's Congressional delegation should reject this sweetheart deal for polluters," he concluded.