EPA Delays Controversial Plan to Cut Mercury Emissions

Under attack from environmentalists and a bipartisan group of congressional members, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt on Thursday announced a delay in the development of a controversial proposal to limit mercury emissions from power plants.

Critics have complained that the administration’s preferred market-oriented approach to regulating the neurotoxin was a giveaway to the power and coal industries that could endanger public health.

During an impromptu news conference, Leavitt said the EPA would conduct further studies on how best to regulate mercury and that he was open to a range of approaches. His call for more study helps the administration forestall a growing election-year controversy.

Earlier this month, 45 senators had asked Leavitt to withdraw the proposed rule because of substantive and procedural flaws. The Los Angeles Times reported in March that the EPA’s scientific and legal staff were bypassed in the development of the rule, though industry lobbyists supplied language that was used verbatim.

Leavitt told reporters that he was rejecting the senators’ request.

“While I am not willing to withdraw the rule, I am willing to extend the deadline for comment for three months,” he said. “This will allow EPA to receive additional information on important aspects of the proposed rule. Our goal will be to make the right decision on mercury in the interest of public health.”

Members of Congress also have pressed Leavitt to explain why a federal advisory committee’s request for analytical studies had been ignored. Leavitt responded by pointing out that he was not EPA administrator at that time.

“My commitment now is to make a decision based on all the available information we need to reach the best possible conclusion,” he said.

He said repeatedly that the Bush administration remained committed to regulating mercury “for the first time in history.”

Mercury occurs naturally in the environment and is a byproduct of burning coal and other natural fuels. Power plants produce about a third of the mercury emitted in the United States.

The EPA has estimated that every year, about 600,000 babies are born in the U.S. with mercury in their blood at levels above those considered safe, chiefly as a result of their mothers having eaten fish.

Mercury has emerged as an increasingly sticky issue for the Bush administration. The coal and utility interests, strong backers of the president, would like to see the administration’s preferred flexible approach enacted, while environmentalists and a growing number of states are strongly opposed. Leavitt’s announcement of a delay, more comment and more study was likely to tamp down some of the complaint.

Environmentalists say utilities could cut 90% of the mercury from their emissions within a few years by using the best available technology. The administration has said its market-based approach to mercury reduction would do less harm to the economy and still reduce mercury emissions by 70%, but indicated it would take far longer.