Wisconsin Grapples With Mercury Emission Regulations

The State of Wisconsin has been holding public hearings over the last couple weeks on how the State should move forward on mercury emissions. There are voices on both sides of the issue and the process seems to working out well. All parties agree that lower mercury emissions from coal fired utilities is a good thing, it is just a matter of how far and how fast that is debated.

The same thing has happened all around the country with some States enacting tough mercury laws mandating 90% reductions in emissions over shorter periods, and other States opting to follow the Federal CAMR, allowing emissions reductions on the order of 68 - 70% over the course of a decade or more.

Some of the comments in WI follow. From WISC in Madison;

The Sierra Club said it wants a 90 percent reduction in mercury pollution by the year 2012.
"Let's leave a legacy to the people that this group, us, this age, right now, cares about our earth and does something immediately," said Chuck Rolfsmeyer, of the Bass Federation and Fishing Expo. Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois have all enacted rules to fight mercury pollution, WISC-TV reported.

From the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce;

CAMR establishes standards of performance limiting mercury emissions from new coal-fired power plants, and creates a market-based "cap and trade" program that will reduce utility emissions of mercury from existing plants in two phases. CAMR is the best option for Wisconsin, and WMC supports the adoption of Wisconsin CAMR as a means to mitigate the rate impact associated with mercury emission reductions from electric utilities.

And this from the Op-Ed by David Zweifel, the Editor of the Capitol Times.

...the DNR was ordered to revisit the mercury standards issue after the feds decided what to do.

Not surprisingly, the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency has erred on the power plants' side. Its standards are even more lenient -- a 70 percent reduction by the year 2018.
[...]
The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, the United Steelworkers Union and others all pleaded with the DNR to require the state's utilities to reduce mercury emissions by some 90 percent by 2012.
[...]
The quicker we get the mercury pollutants reduced, the quicker it will help not only Wisconsin's fishing tourism, but the safety of folks who love to catch and eat their own fish.
Interestingly, even Illinois has tougher standards than Wisconsin's current rules calling for 75 percent reduction by 2015.

Who's opposing tougher standards? Some, but not all, of the power companies, and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which, of course, doesn't like anything that might increase power plant costs.

The Sierra Club's Feyerherm explained that the cost that would be passed on to ratepayers would amount to just over $12 a year -- $1.03 per month.

That's a small price to pay to help clean up a major problem.