Merry Mercury
courier-journal.com
Let it be said of President Bush and his crowd that they
know how to keep Christmas.
Indeed, it's not even a seasonal celebration for the
Bushies. The exchange of lucrative favors from the
administration in return for huge contributions from its
many corporate friends continues unabated
year-round.
Of course, not everyone shares in the largesse. The
public often receives a lump of coal in its stocking
— or, in the most recent case, unhealthy levels
of mercury contamination.
Toxic mercury poses special dangers for fetuses and
newborns who can be put at risk for neurological
impairment, including autism and learning disorders.
About 8 percent of American women of childbearing
age have unsafe mercury levels in their blood. Mercury
exposure can also damage adults' cardiovascular and
immune systems and their kidneys.
About 40 percent of U.S. industrial mercury emissions
come from coal-fired power plants, but the
Environmental Protection Agency concluded in 2000
that a decrease of at least 80 percent could be
achieved, probably by 2007, and would cost the industry less than 1 percent
of its revenues.
But then two things happened. It's unlikely they were unrelated.
One is that the energy industry gave more than $48 million to Republicans
in the 2000 campaign, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The other is that the EPA, under the Bush administration, now proposes to
require only a 30 percent reduction in mercury emissions from power plants
by 2010, and delays a 70 percent cut until 2018.
A particularly unfortunate aspect of this retreat is that mercury "hot spots,"
such as Louisville, will get little relief, because operators of offending utilities
will be able to buy pollution credits.
Kentucky ranked eighth in mercury air emissions from power plants in
2001, and Indiana was fourth.
So here's the Yuletide scorecard: Industry is offered a cheap and gradual
timetable for dealing with mercury. The new EPA administrator, Michael
Leavitt, gets a forceful reminder that White House political operatives will
make environmental decisions that affect their friends.
And the public will get about 300 unnecessary tons of mercury in its water
and air.
It puts "who's naughty or nice" in a different context. |
