Where Bush Ignored The Problem, Obama Team Plans On Leading Global Fight Against Mercury

In a complete turnaround of US policy.

Some excerpts from an AP article, and the AP photo by K. Senosi.

Daniel Reifsnyder, the deputy assistant secretary of state for environment and sustainable development, told a gathering of global environmental ministers in Nairobi, Kenya, that the US wants negotiations on limiting mercury to begin this year and conclude within three.

"We're prepared to help lead in developing a globally legally binding instrument," he said. "It is clear mercury is the most important global chemical issue facing us today that calls for immediate action."

The statement represented a "a 180-degree turnaround" from policy under the Bush administration, said Michael Bender, co-coordinator of the Zero Mercury Working Group, a global coalition of 75 environmental organizations working to reduce mercury exposure.

"The change is like night and day. The Bush administration opposed any international legal agreements on mercury and President (Barack) Obama is in office less than one month and is already supporting a global agreement," he said.

Bender said his group has had more discussions over mercury control in the past two weeks than they have in the last eight years and that the U.S. government included many of their ideas in the proposal they are presented in Nairobi.
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A U.S.-drafted proposal obtained by The Associated Press would form a negotiating committee in conjunction with the U.N. environment program to help countries reduce their mercury use, clean up contaminated sites and find environmentally sound ways to store mercury. The European Union has already banned mercury exports starting in 2011. The U.S. has a similar ban that will be effective 2013, legislation that was sponsored by Obama when he was a U.S. senator.

Advocacy groups that have been working on getting such a global pact passed welcomed the U.S. policy change, saying it could encourage other countries such as Canada to make a similar change. Bender said mercury levels in the world had increased two to three times over the past 200 years.

"Given that the United States has pushed the door of resistance in a sense, that will lead others to follow," said Susan Egan Keane of the Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council.

It is actions like these that make me proud to have supported the change we Americans have initiated. It is actions like the ones in the other post today that remind me we have a long way to go.

There is another good article on this subject from Environment News Service here. Change is a coming.

Agency Memo Asks Power Project Permitting Authorities to Perform MACT Review

As I stated earlier in this blog, if you want to build new coal (or oil) fired power plants in this country you better plan on MACT standards for mercury and other toxics. A new EPA memo, dated January 7, 2009, has asked for just that consideration when reviewing new plant permits. This will affect all new plants and those that started construction, or re-construction, between March 29, 2005 and March 14, 2008.

Even though most affected construction probably meets the requirements anyway, the EPA is beginning to understand what many states already knew to be so.

Excerpts from a Power Engineering Int'l article follow;

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation said in a January 7 memo that power plants under construction may now need to meet new-source maximum available control technology (MACT) standards.

The EPA memo, from Robert J. Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator, states that although electric steam generators may have relied on rules that EPA issued and that were vacated by a federal court in February 2008, EPA now believes those generators are "legally obligated to come into compliance" with the requirements of Section 112(g). Section 112(g) refers to a portion of the Clean Air Act Amendments.
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Units affected by the January 7 EPA memo include coal- and oil-fired facilities that began "actual construction or reconstruction" between March 29, 2005 and March 14, 2008.

EPA said it reviewed permit information for potentially affected facilities and believes that controls in place "may be sufficient" to comply with MACT standards. The agency said, however, it is asking state and local air permitting authorities to make new-source MACT determinations for each affected project.

EPA advised permitting authorities not to consider any MACT options closed simply because permits have been issued, administrative processes have begun or contracts have been let. Instead, "permitting authorities should limit such consideration to actual construction only."