| Date: | Jan 14, 2007 7:50 PM | ||
New Mexico AG joins states opposing EPA mercury levels SANTA FE, N.M. -- New Mexico Attorney General Gary King has joined more than a dozen states that are challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rules governing mercury emissions from power plants. The states have filed a brief with a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., asking that the existing rules be thrown out and that EPA be directed to establish new, more stringent standards. "Simply put, this brief alleges that the EPA's rules weaken the Clean Air Act. Especially in New Mexico, which has the highest atmospheric concentration of airborne mercury in the nation, we feel the EPA's rules are unacceptable," King said Friday. "I made a promise to protect New Mexico's environment and this brief shows my commitment to doing so." The states argue that EPA rules allow plants to avoid the expense of installing pollution control systems to reduce mercury emissions under a cap-and-trade program. The plants can instead purchase emission reduction credits from cleaner plants to bring their own emissions down to acceptable levels. The states claim this allows localized mercury hot spots to develop. But the EPA has defended itself, saying the U.S. is the first nation in the world to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, which account for much of the toxin in the air. According to King, coal-fired plants generate about 48 tons of mercury emissions each year. Through the cap-and-trade program, the EPA plans to reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent by 2025. In New Mexico, there has been much debate in recent months over emissions from coal-fired power plants. Houston-based Sithe Global Energy and the Navajo Nation's Dine Power Authority plan to build a plant on tribal land in northwestern New Mexico. The Desert Rock Energy Project would be the region's third coal-fired power plant. While investors say the plant would be one of the cleanest in the nation, some Navajos who live in the area are concerned about added pollution and other impacts on their homeland. A group that has been holding vigil at the Desert Rock site for the past month voiced their concerns once more during the inauguration Tuesday of Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. They wore respiratory masks and carried banners that read "Respect Mother Earth" and "Defend Our Right to Clean Air." "This is an issue that affects everyone," Elouise Brown, president of the Dooda Desert Rock Committee, said during the demonstration in Window Rock, Ariz. "Public health, burial sites, sacred sites, air, water, you name it _ it's all in jeopardy." As for the attorney general, King said Friday he's concerned the EPA rules would negate the benefits of reduced emissions from previous negotiations with coal-fired power plants. In addition to New Mexico, the other states challenging the EPA rules include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. |
