{"id":1017,"date":"2003-12-30T10:13:00","date_gmt":"2003-12-30T15:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1017.html"},"modified":"2003-12-30T10:13:00","modified_gmt":"2003-12-30T15:13:00","slug":"bush-administration-ignores-its-own-commission-on-mercury-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-administration-ignores-its-own-commission-on-mercury-emissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush administration ignores its own commission on mercury emissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned<\/a> a few weeks ago that the Bush administration is working to undo federal regulations that would force power plants to sharply reduce mercury emissions and other toxic pollutants. The Washington Post had an interesting item today<\/a> (unfortunately buried on page A17) explaining some of the behind-the-scenes work that led to the move.<\/p>\n

To review for a moment, in 2000, the Clinton administration called for mandatory reductions in mercury, requiring power plants to meet a “maximum achievable control technology” (MACT) standard to sharply reduce toxic pollutants. Clinton specifically sought to reduce mercury and nickel emissions, which have been tied to neurological problems for humans.<\/p>\n

The Bush administration, meanwhile, is reversing Clinton’s policy in order to make the regulations on power plans less onerous and the enforcement of environmental standards more flexible.<\/p>\n

The Post’s report<\/a> today, however, explains that a Bush administration working group was prepared to conclude that the administration should follow-through on the Clinton-era regulations on mercury reduction. So what happened? Well, when the White House saw that its task force was coming to the “wrong” conclusion, they simply disbanded the task force.<\/p>\n

For nearly 21 months, a government task force steadily moved toward recommending rules that within three years would force every coal-fired power plant in the country to reduce emissions of mercury, which can cause neurological and developmental damage to humans.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored working group had a well-regarded mix of utility industry representatives, state air quality officials and environmentalists. Without settling on specific emission reductions, the panel agreed that all 1,100 of the nation’s coal- and oil-fired power plants must use the “maximum achievable control technology” (MACT) to reduce mercury and other hazardous pollutants.<\/p>\n

But in April, the EPA abruptly dismantled the panel. John A. Paul, its co-chairman, said members were given no clue why their work was halted — that is, until late last month, when the Bush administration revealed it was taking an entirely different approach, using a more flexible portion of the Clean Air Act.<\/i><\/p>\n

“Flexible” meaning less regulation and less enforcement, of course. Great.
\n
\nThe Post article also quoted Paul as wondering why the administration bothered creating the working group in the first place.<\/p>\n

“It is as though the working group never existed,” said Paul, supervisor of Ohio’s Regional Air Pollution Control Agency. “Just when we think we have a process in action to control mercury from every<\/i> power plant, they walk away from it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the Bush administration is working to undo federal regulations that would force power plants to sharply reduce mercury emissions and other toxic pollutants. The Washington Post had an interesting item today (unfortunately buried on page A17) explaining some of the behind-the-scenes work that led to the move. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}