Challenging Federal Mercury Rollbacks

In a major victory for SELC and the leading public heath organizations it represented, a federal court ruled in February 2008 that all of the nation’s proposed new power plants must install stringent mercury controls before coming online. In addition, the ruling gives the Environmental Protection Agency two years to develop similar standards for existing plants.

Cleaner Power Plants

Despite being the single greatest source of mercury pollution in the country and a major source of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals, the EPA failed to list power plants on its list of sources required to control these hazardous air pollutants. Instead, in 2005, the agency offered up the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR), based on a “cap and trade” scheme, which allows facilities to trade mercury pollution credits with other less-polluting power plants. Under the flawed plan, the EPA projects that U.S. power plants will continue to emit nearly 20 tons of mercury into the air each year through 2025 or beyond.

Fortunately, the federal court ruled that the EPA erred by failing to list power plants as sources of hazardous pollutants when issuing CAMR. The ruling will have significant effects on existing power plants and the approximately 100 new power plants proposed nationwide, such as those in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

• New Power Plants:  According to the ruling, new plants must determine on a case-by-case basis how to control mercury pollution at least as well as the best controlled similar source. This could result in as much as a 95% or greater reduction of mercury at coal-fired power plants; and


• Existing Power Plants:  The EPA now has two years to develop mercury emissions standards for existing plants.