Oregon and the Clean Air Mercury Rule
In May 2005, EPA developed a highly controversial model mercury emission cap-and-trade program, and established a mercury budget for states with coal-fired power plants (all but Idaho, Vermont and Rhode Island). The program is inaptly titled the Clean Air Mercury Rule, and it obligates all states to submit their own state plans for dealing with mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Each state can follow the model approach the Bush Administration EPA recommends, or it can take a more aggressive approach to phasing out mercury emissions.
· Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury emissions in the U.S.
· At least 21 states have already repudiated the Bush EPA’s model rule, vowing to pursue more aggressive mercury reduction timelines
· Most of these states also oppose interstate mercury trading due to concerns that it will result in mercury “hot spots”
· Oregon appears poised to join states such as Mississippi and West Virginia in following EPA’s model rule rather than developing more aggressive reduction timelines
· Mercury capture and control technology for power plants is field-tested, cost-effective and commercially available
· Control technology is feasible for all grades of coal, including the variants of western coal commonly used at PGE Boardman
· Mercury capture and control technologies have been widely deployed in municipal waste combustors and medical waste incinerators for years
· Controls are affordable- studies have shown that mercury control technology will typically add 15 to 60 cents per month to a typical 750 KWh residential electric bill
· Mercury is a persistent, bio-accumulative neurotoxin that can remain active in the environment for more than 10,000 years and is harmful to humans and wildlife
· Mercury endangers pregnant women, their fetuses, children, subsistence fishermen and recreational anglers by causing brain and nervous system damage in children and heart and immune system damage in adults.
· Exposure to mercury in utero causes deficits in memory, attention, language, and visual/spatial perception
· Although Oregon DEQ claims that most of the mercury deposition in Oregon results from global sources (primarily from Asia), we have the opportunity and responsibility to control mercury emissions in our own backyard, from the PGE Boardman plant
· It is time for PGE to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem
On-line resources:
1. Oregon’s plan to implement the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) public notice: http://www.deq.state. or.us/aq/mercury/ docs/camr_pubnotice. pdf
2. DEQ’s discussion of CAMR implementation in Oregon: http://www.deq.state. or.us/aq/mercury/ docs/attachG.pdf
3. Testimony by Pennsylvania Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection before Penn. state legislature (EPA officials testified in opposition to the state’s attempts to regulate emissions more aggressively than in EPA’s model rule). http://www.depweb. state.pa.us/dep/ cwp/view.asp?a=3&q=503828
4. Outstanding background document prepared by STAPPA/ALAPCO- national associations of air pollution agencies: http://www.4cleanair. org/FinalMercuryModelRule- 111405.pdf
5. STAPPA/ALAPCO table discussing CAMR approaches in other states: http://www.4cleanair. org/StatePrograms. pdf
6. Trasande and Landrigan’s study on the public health and economic consequences of mercury toxicity to the developing brain: http://www.ehponline. org/members/2005/ 7743/7743.pdf
7. Minnesota’s Mercury Emissions Reduction Act of 2006, signed into law by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty on May 11: http://www.revisor. leg.state.mn.us/ bin/bldbill.php?bill=H3712.3.html&session= ls84
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