Senators seek to bypass Environment Committee on mercury bill
By Bruce Geiselman

July 19 -- Thirty-two members of the U.S. Senate have signed a petition to bypass the Senate Environment Committee and force a vote by the full Senate on a measure blocking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from enacting its new mercury emission cap-and-trade program.

The senators signing the petition - 28 Democrats, one independent, and three Republicans - are demanding a full Senate vote on a resolution that would prohibit the EPA from delisting coal-burning power plants as a source of hazardous emissions under the Clean Air Act. The delisting is necessary for the EPA´s cap-and-trade program to move forward.

Those objecting to the EPA´s plans argue that the agency should have adopted more stringent regulations, using maximum achievable control technology standards. MACT standards would require all coal burning power plants to install the most effective mercury emissions reduction technology available.

The Senate leadership must schedule a full floor vote on the resolution to block the new mercury rule because petition organizers collected more than the required 30 signatures, said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who spearheaded the effort.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who chairs the Environment Committee, criticized the petition organizers for bypassing his committee.

"It´s unfortunate that the sponsors of [Senate Joint Resolution 20] are hastily seeking to circumvent the committee process in which we could discuss the pros and cons of the existing mercury rule and their resolution," Inhofe said. "Their proposed rollback of the mercury rule, the first regulation of its kind applied to power plants, will only delay the progress in reducing mercury emissions. The sponsors´ hidden attempt to force a maximum achievable control technology, or MACT, standard will only shift more plants away from coal use to more costly natural gas."

Inhofe and other critics of MACT standards for mercury emissions argue that the result would be higher energy prices that would damage the economy and consumers´ pocketbooks.

However, proponents of a MACT standard contend that the EPA´s cap-and-trade plan could result in mercury hot spots as some power plants purchase credits instead of reducing emissions, and that a MACT standard would result in more rapid reductions in mercury emissions.