DrSmellThis
02-05-2005, 06:23 AM
February 4,
2005
E.P.A. Accused of a Predetermined Finding on Mercury
By FELICITY BARRINGER
ASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - The
Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general charged on Thursday that the agency's senior management
instructed staff members to arrive at a predetermined conclusion favoring industry when they prepared a proposed
rule last year to reduce the amount of mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants.
Mercury, which can damage
the neurological development of fetuses and young children, has been found in increasingly high concentrations in
fish in rivers and streams in the United States.
The inspector general's report, citing anonymous agency staff
members and internal e-mail messages, said the technological and scientific analysis by the agency was "compromised"
to keep cleanup costs down for the utility industry.
The goal of senior management, the report said, was to
allow the agency to say that the utility industry could do just as good a job through complying with the Bush
administration's "Clear Skies" legislation as it could by installing costly equipment that a stringent
mercury-control rule would require.
Cynthia Bergman, a spokeswoman for the environmental agency, responded that
the criticism "is not true." The agency, she said, has "wide latitude" in determining which data should be used to
set a pollution control standard based on the best available technology. She said the mercury rule scheduled for
release by March 15 "would take us from no regulation to a mandatory 70 percent cut."
Coal-fired power plants are
the largest remaining domestic source of mercury emissions in the United States, according to agency figures,
although the agency believes that factories and utilities in Asia, which emit more than 1,000 tons of mercury
annually, contribute significantly to the mercury that enters the food chain in the United States. Domestic
coal-fired power plants emitted 48 of the 113.2 million tons produced in the United States in 1999.
The Clear
Skies legislation is under consideration in the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, and the release of
the inspector general's report gives new ammunition to Democrats and environmental groups, which had accused the
Bush administration of giving preferential treatment to the utility industry in the legislation.
Clear Skies is
intended to achieve a 70 percent cut in mercury and two other major pollutants, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide,
but extends to 2018 the amount of time that previous legislation would have given the industry to comply. It also
proposes a system of trading pollution credits, similar to the one used successfully in the 1990's to reduce acid
rain. Even if the legislation fails, the environmental agency has prepared a regulation that mirrors it.
Like the
mercury proposal, this proposal on nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide incorporates a mechanism for trading pollution
credits.
The report said the agency's staff was instructed to determine that the best pollution-control methods
available to power plant owners would cut mercury emissions to 34 million tons from 48 million tons, a result that
was approximated the third time the agency made its computer calculations. Earlier results showing that this
technology might achieve greater reductions were rebuffed by senior managers, the report said.
It concluded that
the agency should go back to the drawing board and "conduct an unbiased analysis of the mercury emissions
data."
Senator James M. Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who is chairman of the Environment and Public Works
committee, lashed out at the inspector general, Nikki Tinsley, a Democrat who has recently issued another harsh
critique charging the agency's senior management with politically driven interference in regulatory deliberations.
"This is another example that Nikki Tinsley has politicized the office," he said in a statement. And Scott
Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, an industry trade group, said the new report and
an earlier critique appear "to go well beyond the expertise of the office."
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts,
the defeated Democratic presidential nominee, issued a statement saying that Ms. Tinsley's report revealed "one of
the most disturbing examples I've seen of an administration allowing spin and junk science to endanger the health
of our children." And Bill Becker, the executive director of a coalition of state and local air pollution control
officials, said: "The I.G.'s findings are troubling, but not unexpected. Nearly every state in the country has
issued fish consumption advisories due to mercury-poisoned waters. E.P.A. must comply with the law and require
stringent cleanup measures at utilities."
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
2005
E.P.A. Accused of a Predetermined Finding on Mercury
By FELICITY BARRINGER
ASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - The
Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general charged on Thursday that the agency's senior management
instructed staff members to arrive at a predetermined conclusion favoring industry when they prepared a proposed
rule last year to reduce the amount of mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants.
Mercury, which can damage
the neurological development of fetuses and young children, has been found in increasingly high concentrations in
fish in rivers and streams in the United States.
The inspector general's report, citing anonymous agency staff
members and internal e-mail messages, said the technological and scientific analysis by the agency was "compromised"
to keep cleanup costs down for the utility industry.
The goal of senior management, the report said, was to
allow the agency to say that the utility industry could do just as good a job through complying with the Bush
administration's "Clear Skies" legislation as it could by installing costly equipment that a stringent
mercury-control rule would require.
Cynthia Bergman, a spokeswoman for the environmental agency, responded that
the criticism "is not true." The agency, she said, has "wide latitude" in determining which data should be used to
set a pollution control standard based on the best available technology. She said the mercury rule scheduled for
release by March 15 "would take us from no regulation to a mandatory 70 percent cut."
Coal-fired power plants are
the largest remaining domestic source of mercury emissions in the United States, according to agency figures,
although the agency believes that factories and utilities in Asia, which emit more than 1,000 tons of mercury
annually, contribute significantly to the mercury that enters the food chain in the United States. Domestic
coal-fired power plants emitted 48 of the 113.2 million tons produced in the United States in 1999.
The Clear
Skies legislation is under consideration in the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, and the release of
the inspector general's report gives new ammunition to Democrats and environmental groups, which had accused the
Bush administration of giving preferential treatment to the utility industry in the legislation.
Clear Skies is
intended to achieve a 70 percent cut in mercury and two other major pollutants, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide,
but extends to 2018 the amount of time that previous legislation would have given the industry to comply. It also
proposes a system of trading pollution credits, similar to the one used successfully in the 1990's to reduce acid
rain. Even if the legislation fails, the environmental agency has prepared a regulation that mirrors it.
Like the
mercury proposal, this proposal on nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide incorporates a mechanism for trading pollution
credits.
The report said the agency's staff was instructed to determine that the best pollution-control methods
available to power plant owners would cut mercury emissions to 34 million tons from 48 million tons, a result that
was approximated the third time the agency made its computer calculations. Earlier results showing that this
technology might achieve greater reductions were rebuffed by senior managers, the report said.
It concluded that
the agency should go back to the drawing board and "conduct an unbiased analysis of the mercury emissions
data."
Senator James M. Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who is chairman of the Environment and Public Works
committee, lashed out at the inspector general, Nikki Tinsley, a Democrat who has recently issued another harsh
critique charging the agency's senior management with politically driven interference in regulatory deliberations.
"This is another example that Nikki Tinsley has politicized the office," he said in a statement. And Scott
Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, an industry trade group, said the new report and
an earlier critique appear "to go well beyond the expertise of the office."
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts,
the defeated Democratic presidential nominee, issued a statement saying that Ms. Tinsley's report revealed "one of
the most disturbing examples I've seen of an administration allowing spin and junk science to endanger the health
of our children." And Bill Becker, the executive director of a coalition of state and local air pollution control
officials, said: "The I.G.'s findings are troubling, but not unexpected. Nearly every state in the country has
issued fish consumption advisories due to mercury-poisoned waters. E.P.A. must comply with the law and require
stringent cleanup measures at utilities."
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company