WASHINGTON, DC—Senators Patrick Leahy (VT), Susan Collins (ME), and James Jeffords (VT) introduced a bipartisan joint resolution today to disapprove an EPA rule that scuttles strict controls for toxic mercury pollution from power plants. The rule, known as the "delisting rule," removes power plants from the list of sources subject to strict controls for their emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants and is also the subject of numerous court challenges.

"We applaud the senators for sending a clear signal to the White House to stop favoring polluter profits over public health," said U.S. PIRG Clean Air Advocate Supryia Ray. "The administration's mercury rule imposes risks on America's children that no parent would want to accept."

The joint resolution to disapprove the delisting rule was introduced pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, a law that enables Congress to disapprove of federal agency rules using special, expedited procedures. Disapproval of a rule voids the rule, meaning it has no effect. Thirty senators co-sponsored the resolution, signing a petition to discharge the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee from its consideration of the resolution so that it can be brought right to the floor for a vote.

An identical joint resolution to disapprove the delisting rule was also introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives by Martin Meehan (MA), with co-sponsors House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), Tom Allen (ME), and Henry Waxman (CA). The Congressional Review Act contains some expedited procedures for use in the House but does not provide for a discharge petition like that in the Senate.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can affect the brain, heart, and immune system. Developing fetuses and children are especially at risk; even low-level exposure to mercury can cause learning disabilities, developmental delays, lowered IQ, and problems with attention and memory. EPA scientists estimate that one in six women has enough mercury in her body to put her child at risk should she become pregnant.

"With power plants responsible for the lion's share of the mercury polluting our air and water, there is no basis for affording them special treatment," Ray said. "It is long past time for power plants to comply with the Clean Air Act and join other industries in reducing their mercury pollution by 90 percent. We urge members of Congress to support the joint resolution and protect Americans from toxic mercury."

EPA's delisting rule, finalized in March 2005, attempts to rescind the agency's 2000 finding that power plants must be regulated under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, which requires that "maximum achievable control technology" (MACT) be used to reduce emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. The rule cleared the way for EPA to adopt a second, industry-backed "cap-and-trade" rule, announced in March and finalized in May, that allows power plants to buy and trade the right to pollute, increasing the risk of creating or exacerbating mercury hot spots, and delays even modest mercury reductions until 2018. Three separate government bodies have sharply criticized EPA's mercury rules, including the agency's own Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, the EPA Inspector General, and the Government Accountability Office.

A MACT standard that complied with the Clean Air Act would have required power plants to reduce their mercury emissions by about 90 percent by 2008, as EPA recognized in 2001 in a presentation to the Edison Electric Institute, the electric utilities' trade association. Technologies to reduce mercury emissions have been used on municipal and medical waste incinerators for nearly a decade and have been successfully demonstrated in at least 16 full-scale tests at coal-fired power plants, according to the Congressional Research Service.

As the result of industry pressure and White House manipulation of the rulemaking process, as revealed in numerous press reports, EPA claims that its 2000 finding "lacked foundation," that "the level of [mercury] emissions remaining after imposition of the requirements of the Act will not cause hazards to public health," and that it is neither necessary nor appropriate to regulate power-plant mercury emissions as a hazardous air pollutant. Yet it has not even attempted to make the factual showings required by law to remove an industry from the source list. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA cannot remove power plants from the list without first determining that no industry source emits hazardous air pollutants in amounts that adversely affect public health or the environment.

The delisting rule is also the subject of numerous legal challenges. To date, fourteen states have filed suit, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Numerous environmental and public health advocates, including U.S. PIRG, have also filed suit challenging the rule, and public health groups, Indian tribes, and the City of Baltimore have moved to intervene in the cases to oppose the rule.

Power plants are the largest manmade source of mercury emissions in the U.S., contributing 41 percent of the total each year. EPA data also show that about one-third of the mercury deposited in the U.S. comes from U.S. power plants alone, and deposition can be much higher near individual plants, since local sources can account for up to 80 percent of mercury deposition at hot spots. Mercury pollution is so pervasive that 44 states have posted mercury-related fish consumption advisories, half of the states for every lake or river.

U.S. PIRG is the national advocacy office for the state Public Interest Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations.