Scientists Take Public Aim At Bush Mercury Trading Scheme

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON, DC, June 29, 2004 (ENS) - "The rationale used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the electric utility industry to justify unconstrained trading of mercury emissions from power plants is unsound and misinterprets current research, according to comments on the proposed mercury rule submitted to the agency by 30 mercury scientists.

Four of the scientists presented their message last week to EPA Assistant Administrator Jeffrey Holmstead - including the scientist who co-authored the research they say has been misinterpreted. The scientists urged the agency to reconsider the use of a trading scheme to reduce mercury emissions, citing limited knowledge about the risks posed by such a program and evidence that it would create mercury "hot spots."

"The bottom line is, given what we currently know about mercury, unconstrained trading of mercury emissions is likely to cause areas of high local deposition - which have been referred to as hotspots" said Dr. Charles Driscoll, professor of Environmental Systems Engineering at Syracuse University and Trustee of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation.

The scientists say the current national monitoring network for airborne mercury in the United States is "insufficient to measure the full impact of the proposed new regulations. In particular, the network is not designed to detect environmental response to changes in mercury emissions or the emergence of hotspots that might accompany a pollution trading program," they wrote in comments to the agency."

EDIT

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=33133

[Mnemosyne]

1. Killing us slowly, sick f**ks.

I'm a victim of severe mercury poisoning and they want to put more of it in our environment!!!

Thank you *!

Thanks for the info hatrack!