The news this week is mostly coming from our Western States. It appears the Montana House Bill 586, by Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Rocky Boy, to impose new mercury emission standards on power plants, is dead before it got going. As Hg-ATME reported earlier this was some very aggressive legislation that probably needs some refinement before gaining majority support.
Another interesting article from the Big Sky State is a piece found in The New West by a seemingly knowledgeable (seemingly, only because I don't know him personally) guest writer, Joe Kerkvliet. Joe's article details some of the downfalls inherent in the recent EPA rules regarding portland cement plants. Hg-ATME has discussed this issue before but moreso on the legality of the rules and whether they meet the letter or intent of the Clean Air Act.
Excerpt follows, but I strongly recommend the whole article to anyone interested in the cement plant debate.
EPA’s grandfathering is bad policy because it tilts the playing field in favor of existing plants. By doing so, EPA fails to regulate the largest sources of mercury emissions in the cement industry. Worse, the grandfathering rule will probably result in more mercury emissions than no rule at all. (Emphasis added)
(...)
Another unintended, but sadly inevitable, result of grandfathering is to make environmental regulation increasingly litigious. Reconstruction review is part and parcel of grandfathering because of the need to distinguish between grandfathered and new plants.
Joe is right on many accounts and his perspective is very easy to understand. I suggest reading the full article here.
The Nevada DEP recently announced its first enforcement action against a gold mine under its new pollution standards. This excerpt from Channel 4 in Carson City and the AP.
Nevada's program to control emissions of toxic mercury from gold mines has just issued its first citation, but pending legislation would result in more efforts to curb mining pollution.
Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie of Renor has authored legislation to establish Nevada's first cap on mercury emissions from mines and require at least a one-quarter reduction of those emissions in five years.
The full article is here.
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