How Minamata May Save Flipper

For centuries fishermen from a small fishing village in Japan have annually corralled thousands of dolphins in a tiny cove and then slaughtered them for meat and fertilizer. For decades environmental and animal activists have protested the slaughters and have attempted to bring public awareness to this unnecessary ritual in an effort to have it stopped, thus far unsuccessfully. But now a threat to the Japanese even stronger than global public opinion may put an end to the senseless killing.

Back in the 1950s and 60s there was a terrible environmental disaster in Japan. A disaster so horrendous that thousands of Japanese people were killed or crippled and many families are still fighting over restitution. The disaster was the mercury poisoning of Minamata Bay caused by dumping vast amounts of industrial waste into the waters near that southern fishing village.

Well recent tests on the meat from the dolphin slaughters has shown very high levels of mercury and may ultimately put an end to the ritual. No one in Japan wants another Minamata, apparently they can live with the senseless killing of dolphins as long as it doesn't jeopardize their food supply with a known toxin. So, their fear of poisoning themselves may end the killing of the dolphins. If only they were smart enough to do something about poisoning the dolphins so our marvelous mammalian brothers and sisters of the sea could live toxin-free too. Oh, and try to find a better source of food and fertilizer.

Nevada Rebuffed, Oklahoma Dawdles & Michigan Boldly Moves Forward

As the country awaits the decision of the Federal Appeals Court in D.C. on the legality and thus the future of the CAMR, different States are taking different tacks. Nevada sent its plan to comply with CAMR to the EPA back in November of 2006. The plan was recently rejected and sent back for rework. The EPAs decision to reject the plan is open for comment now and has been extended until March 13, 2008.

Oklahoma officials used the pending federal court case as an excuse to delay action altogether. From a recent NewsOK article;

Members of the Department of Environmental Quality's Air Quality Advisory Council voted to delay adopting proposed rules seeking to implement limits within the Sooner State until at least April.

They opted to wait because of an ongoing lawsuit seeking to void the federal rules.
[...]
The advisory council's decision Thursday didn't appear to surprise environmentalists who attended the meeting.

Still, they told council members Thursday stricter standards need to be adopted now.

"When it comes to that decision on the federal lawsuit, whichever way it goes, what is the risk of going ahead with something stricter?” asked Montelle Clark, a member of the Oklahoma Sustainability Network's board of directors.

"You are still allowed to do that” regardless of the lawsuit's outcome, Clark said. "If you went ahead and did it now, you would be ahead of the game.”

Meanwhile, Michigan has all but declared war on mercury in all its forms and releases. A bold 67 point plan, if completely enacted and seen through, would position Michigan as a model for the rest of the country. Some of it requires future legislation but a lot of it is a "call for partnerships with local governments and private groups."

An excerpt from All American Patriots follows;

January 30, 2008 -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has released a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the use and release of mercury to Michigan's environment. The DEQ's Mercury Strategy Staff Report contains specific recommendations to ensure the protection of Michigan's wildlife and citizens from this persistent toxic pollutant by proposing a comprehensive approach to controlling mercury, including environmental monitoring, inventory development, collaborations and partnerships, information and outreach, and regulatory controls.

Different strokes...

Cross Border Pollution Disputes & Suits

It was just a couple weeks ago that the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Canadian mining firm Teck Cominco of a lower court decision in 2006 that "an American environmental law applied to a foreign company when some of its pollution reaches U.S. territory." Indian tribes and environmentalists in the northwest claimed Teck Comincos effluents were polluting the Columbia River.

Now in what appears to be turnabout is fair play, DTE Energy is in the crosshairs of Canadian environmental groups over cross border mercury emissions. An excerpt from CommonDreams.org follows:

On Wednesday, the Superior Court of Justice in Sarnia, Ontario issued an order directing a lower court to summon DTE Energy to face charges for poisoning the St. Clair River with dangerous amounts of mercury. Michigan's DTE Energy Company is being charged for its role in polluting the St. Clair River with mercury.

And this tidbit from Toronto's The Star:

The case will probably be "a really uphill battle," for the Alliance, said Barry Spiegel, at Toronto's Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers.

It's not likely DTE would be legally required to obey a summons from Ontario or be penalized if it didn't appear in court and was convicted anyway, particularly since it has no assets or workers in Ontario.

"It's hard to say how far (the Alliance prosecution) will go," he said.

If the lawyers are right, who wins and who loses? If a company is operating within its permit limits in the country and state it is in, how can it be held accountable in a foreign country? Let's all sue China for its mercury emissions and see how far we get. International understanding and cooperation are required, not cross border lawsuits.

What do Umatilla, Steamboat Springs, TiO2, PG&Es Boardman and Sperm Have In Common? Read On

The effects of mercury emissions on our planet have brought together this disparate group in this installment of Hg-ATME.

Incineration of chemical weapons at Umatilla has been going on for about three years. Recently it has come under renewed attack by a "DC Watchdog" group stating there are better, safer ways to decontaminate mustard gas and other hazardous waste without mercury and other chemical emissions. KUOW, an NPR affiliate covered this story earlier this week.

Scientists studying in the clouds at DRI"s Storm Peak Laboratory above Steamboat Springs, CO have been witnessing an alarming increase in the amount of airborne mercury. Using some fairly new technology they are capable of detecting the "low" ambient concentrations, but do not be fooled by the word "low". Remember everything is relative. These ambient readings have gone up dramatically in very short order and because of the accumulative nature of mercury in the environment pose real concerns. Both KWGN2 and CBS4 in Denver covered this story.

In some hopeful news this week, Washington University in St. Louis, my sisters alma mater, along with Chrysler and Ameren are experimenting with some promising technology, reusing paint solids from automobile spray booths as supplemental fuel and also removing mercury from the flue gas. The paint solids were landfilled before Dr. Pratim Biswas, Stifel & Quinette Jens recognized the opportunity they possessed in removing mercury from the coal combustion process. See the paint residue is high in titanium dioxide (TiO2) which through a process known as chemisorption bonds with the mercury and is removed with the plants existing air pollution control devices. Sounds like a win-win-win, less waste, less coal, less mercury. A footnote from the Eurekalert release follows;

The project has been recognized with a pollution prevention award from the St, Louis chapter of the National Association of Environmental Managers and with an Environmental Leadership Award from Chrysler.

The Washington University, Chrysler and Ameren team also received the 2007 Chrysler Environmental Leadership Award.

As environmental groups continue to attack coal fired power plants (the activity du jour), Oregon's Boardman Station, the only coal fired plant in the state, is under fire from the Sierra Club and others claiming the plant is violating the Federal Clean Air Act with emissions of mercury and other dangerous substances. Excuse me, but, I think Boardman in all likelihood is operating in legal compliance with its operating permits. You and I and the Sierra Club and others may want stricter limits on pollution but until the laws change suing individual facilities is wasting our judicial system's time. An excerpt from the Bizjournals story follows;

The complaint alleges the Boardman plant is the largest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in Oregon and that its ongoing emissions of mercury and other substances violates federal law and jeopardizes environmental and public health.

The effort is part of a national campaign by environmental groups to eliminate existing and proposed coal-fired power plants. Such plants provide more than half of the country's power but are also the nation's largest source of carbon dioxide.

I don't know what they think we will do without 50% of our power. Eliminating coal fired plants from our energy mix is an admirable goal but one that is decades away, that is unless you don't like air conditioning, heated homes in winter, night baseball, large screen TVs, and those really cool electric massagers.

And just when I thought I had heard every possible downside to mercury emissions along comes my old friend Wired magazine to zing me with a new one. Sperm in mice, and presumably humans too, have shriveled DNA due to air pollution, including mercury. It seems a team of scientists from Canada of all places (maybe their sperm DNA shriveled because it was too cold, but I digress) set mice in cages out in heavy industrial areas, some cages open to the pollution and others sealed getting only HEPA filtered air. Well, you guessed it, the ones breathing the pollution had sperm with shriveled DNA. And not only that the sperm were also hypermethylated, excessive gene activity. God, I hate when that happens. But seriously they are looking into the possible connection between these sperm mutations and the increase in childhood autism.

Recent CAMR / CAIR Update Slideshow

One of my colleagues sent me this link to a powerpoint Beth Murray of the EPA used in a training class that shows the current status of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) and the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR). You may find this interesting and useful.

New Year Brings New Hope and Some Pretty Cool Mercury Pollution Research

Happy New Year to all. After returning from my Christmas vacation there was not much going on within the mercury legislation circles. We all anxiously await the decision by the D.C. Appeals Court on the legality of the Federal CAMR. But that decision appears to be a month or two away.
The Allen S. King coal-fired power plant near Stillwater is the first of three Xcel
Energy plants to go on line with new emissions reduction equipment, as part of a
voluntary cleanup agreement with the state. (Courtesy of Xcel Energy)

Xcel Energy promises to install carbon injection systems on two of its larger units in Minnesota, reducing mercury emissions by as much as 90% or more. The EPA gave its nod to the Northeast States plan to limit mercury in its lakes and streams, but without a National plan to reduce emissions from all coal fired power stations in a timely fashion the approval has little meaning.

Some groups in Virginia are calling on their state to ratchet down mercury emissions by pointing to other more aggressive states and the folks in Grand Island, NE are getting a grasp on what they need to do to bring their cities power plant into compliance by 2010.

While I was skimming through the literature on mercury emissions I came across a notable project being undertaken at Dartmouth University. They are launching an interdisciplinary study on the social and economical impacts of mercury pollution. This promises to be like no other research project in its approach to gaining understanding of what really happens to populations as they are exposed to rising levels of mercury pollution. Not just health effects but a holistic look at all the impacts of a toxin in our environment. An excerpt from VOX of Dartmouth follows;

Even at Dartmouth, where interdisciplinary projects abound, this one stands out, says principal investigator Mark Borsuk, an assistant professor at Thayer School of Engineering. “Not only are we from four different departments, we are overseen by three different deans. The grant proposal needed three times the typical number of signatures.” The team includes Borsuk; Darren Ranco, assistant professor of Native American studies and environmental studies; Richard Howarth, the Pat and John Rosenwald Professor and professor of environmental studies; and Andrew King, associate professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business. The project is funded by a three-year, $300,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability program. The group will apply a combination of economic and social scientific theory, environmental modeling, behavioral experiments, and interviews with “stakeholders,” or those affected by mercury pollution. The goal is to identify compelling “indicators” of mercury pollution—ways of characterizing the pollutant’s impact that are especially meaningful to the public. For example, a “biological indicator” might be the mercury levels in a popular fish or wildlife species, while a “social indicator” may range from the average number of IQ points a child loses when exposed to high levels of the pollutant, to the number of public meetings attended by members from impacted communities to implement the regulations.

I wish this team the best of luck and look forward to their findings as they are released.

With China Over Our Shoulder Can We Find Our Way To Clean Air?

The statistics are mind boggling the growth is enormous, the pace of China's industrialization is simply overwhelming, it has the momentum of a tsunami! What can we and the rest of the world do to cope with it? Do our efforts at pollution prevention pale when we look west and see clouds of industrial gases pouring over the Pacific? Air pollution is only one aspect of the Big C and we are the primary pump sucking all their efforts, good and bad, off shore.

Mercury emissions are my focus, China is a player! In fact they are the big player at the end of the table with the big pile of chips. My bet is they will first dwarf our efforts to reduce mercury emissions, but if the technology here succeeds, and I think it will, they will quickly adopt and be a good steward too. Same with CO2, they will move fast and benefit from technological advancements to "clean up their act" after they achieve some level of economical catch-up. The bet we are all hoping comes through is it won't be too late.

I loved this article in Discover Magazine by Evan Ratliff. Only a small portion dealt with mercury directly, but the industrial movement, well underway in China, is nothing to ignore. An excerpt follows;

...The blowups over tainted products, however, overshadowed landmark news regarding a far more dangerous Chinese export: pollution. Back in 2000, China’s economic planners boldly predicted that the country would double its energy usage by 2020. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in turn, estimated that China would surpass the United States as the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide by that same year. Propelled by a decade of blistering growth unfettered by environmental regulations, China managed to hit its energy usage goal in 2007, 13 years ahead of schedule. And depending on whose estimates you accept, the country has already taken the carbon-dioxide emissions crown.

Given that China is home to 20 percent of the planet’s population and a burgeoning, ever more consuming middle class, it’s not surprising that the country’s footprint on the environment is growing. What is shocking is the extent to which that footprint is stomping not just China’s ecology but that of the rest of the planet.

China has become the leading importer of illegally harvested timber. It is the global hub for endangered wildlife trafficking. The Chinese are the world’s largest consumers of grain, meat, coal, and steel. And China is feeding its appetites for those commodities—and increasingly for oil—by investing in resource extraction in less-developed areas like Africa. Even in a government not prone to harsh self-evaluation, a top Chinese environmental official pronounced ominously last year that the pollution crisis at home “allows for no optimism.”

The statistics are staggering. Fourteen thousand new cars hit the road each day, and by the year 2020, China is expected to have 130 million cars. Meanwhile, about 70 percent of China’s nontransportation energy comes from burning 3.2 billion tons of coal each year. The nation is building coal-fired power plants—one of the dirtiest forms of energy production—at a clip of two to three a week. China is also home to 5 of the 10 most polluted cities on the planet, according to China’s own State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)—including the major coal-mining city of Linfen, the most polluted city in the world. The World Bank estimated in early 2007 that air pollution alone causes at least 700,000 premature deaths in China annually.

The impact of all this extends far beyond China’s borders. Taken as a group, its coal-fired power plants emit the world’s highest levels of sulfur dioxide (a major element of acid rain) and mercury, both of which rise high into the atmosphere and hitch a ride on air currents circling the globe. One study, published last year in the Journal of Geophysical Research, calculated that three-quarters of the black carbon pollution in the atmosphere over the western United States originates in Asia. It is estimated that as much as 35 percent of all the mercury pollution in the western United States comes from abroad, and China is most likely the main culprit. According to the World Wildlife Fund, untreated waste has turned China’s Yangtze River basin into the single largest polluter of the Pacific Ocean. “There’s no doubt,” says Elizabeth Economy, director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, “that what China is doing on the domestic front has an enormous effect on the globe.”

Within China, the devastation is more intense. One-third of its land has been hit by acid rain, according to the head of SEPA. One hundred ten of its cities are short of water. Available water is so polluted that nearly 700 million Chinese citizens drink from supplies contaminated by human and animal excrement.

The conventional wisdom has long held that China is merely following the path of the United States and other developed countries that polluted—and in some cases, continue to do so—on their way to a wealthier populace and eventual stricter environmental controls. But the epic pace of China’s development could spawn an ecological catastrophe of a different order. “What China is facing in terms of environmental challenges,” Economy says, “is not comparable to anything we have faced in this country.”

There is some hope though, as I said they are pretty quick to adapt and the masses want changes in environmental conditions in China.

Some nongovernmental organizations in China have been pushing for reform over the last decade. Members of these grassroots outfits, often operating at the risk of arrest or harassment, press for environmental improvements through public demonstrations and the limited legal action allowed. “On the positive side, you have demonstrations, you have marches, you have hundreds of thousands of people writing letters to complain about pollution and request that something get done about it,” says Economy. “On the other hand, you also have citizen activism such that when Beijing said we are going to shut down the factories in advance of the Olympics, factory managers are coming back and saying no.”

The good news is that overhauling outdated technology might easily rein in the devastating pollution. Much of China’s industry uses energy-guzzling equipment from the 1970s, and the NRDC estimates that by using existing technology and enforcing simple building codes, the country could cut its energy demands by half or more in the next decade.

“There is no other country in the world as dynamic and rapidly changing as China,” observes Alex Wang, an NRDC attorney who directs the council’s China Environmental Law Project in Beijing. “It really is a country where things can be dramatically different from one day to the next.”

Just as quickly as China became the world’s leading polluter, it could find a greener path to development. But if it fails, the outcome will be more than just a public relations nightmare.

A Year Later Our First Day In Court - Health Groups and States Appeals Finally Being Heard

As Hg-ATME reported almost a year ago, major health organizations challenged EPAs rules on mercury emissions. That challenge, joined now by as many as 14 States, several Tribes and numerous Environmental Groups is finally having its voices heard in Federal Appeals Court in Washington D.C. As reported by the PRNewswire - USNewswire and picked up by Forbes on Dec 6th;

Fourteen states and dozens of Native American tribes, public health and environmental groups, and organizations representing registered nurses and physicians appeared in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today seeking to overturn Bush administration proposals that evade legally required cuts in mercury pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants (Case No.: 05-1097). The broad coalition called for the complete reversal of a suite of Environmental Protection Agency rules, including the so-called "Clean Air Mercury Rule," which allows dangerously high levels of mercury pollution to persist under a weak cap-and-trade program that would not take full effect until well beyond 2020.
[...]
The following joint statement can be attributed to the American Nurses Association; the American Public Health Association; Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Clean Air Task Force; Conservation Law Foundation; Earthjustice; Environment America (formerly US PIRG); Environmental Defense; National Wildlife Federation; Natural Resources Council of Maine; Natural Resources Defense Council; Ohio Environmental Council; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Sierra Club; and Waterkeeper Alliance:

"These rules are simply illegal. Despite mercury pollution's significant impacts on human health and the environment, EPA has ignored science, law and human health in allowing coal-fired power plants to churn out dangerous mercury levels. Rather than applying the toughest standards of the Clean Air Act, EPA has proposed an ineffective mercury trading scheme that delays implementation of modern pollution controls for years. EPA has created an illegal loophole for the power generating industry that allows for dangerous emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollutants now and into the future.

"Power plants spew 48 tons of mercury into the air each year, yet a mere 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury per year is enough to contaminate a 25-acre lake to the point that fish are unsafe to eat. EPA estimates that as many as 600,000 babies may be born annually with irreversible brain damage because pregnant mothers ate mercury-contaminated fish. Mercury risks also include delayed developmental milestones, reduced neurological test scores, and cardiovascular disease. Nearly one-third (32 percent) of America's lakes and nearly one-fourth (24 percent) of our rivers were subject to advisories for mercury contamination in 2003.

"Congress recognized the importance of cleaning up the nation's polluting coal-fired power plants when it passed clean air protections, but the EPA has repeatedly failed to carry out the law and follow the science in protecting human health and the environment from mercury pollution. In this instance, EPA has finalized a plan first drafted by industry attorneys that violates the law and fails to protect human health. We are grateful to have had our day in court to demonstrate EPA's failure to adopt protective mercury emission standards for coal plants as required by law."

And the story was also picked up in USA Today where we get these excerpts;

A Bush administration plan to limit mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants is legal and should not be overturned, a government lawyer said in federal court Thursday.

But two of the three appellate court judges reviewing a lawsuit against the plan appeared skeptical of that argument from Justice Department attorney Eric Hostetler.
[...]
The rule is being challenged by a coalition of environmental groups, 14 states and a number of Native American tribes. They argue that the EPA's plan violates the 1990 Clean Air Act and lets power plants continue emitting mercury in amounts that pose health hazards to humans and animals.

James Pew, an attorney for Earthjustice, called the rule "unlawful."

In 2000, during the Clinton administration, the EPA said coal-burning power plants should be required to use the most high-tech, effective emissions controls available (MACT) to reduce mercury emissions.

During the Bush administration, EPA officials reversed course, saying the original decision didn't account for reductions in mercury emissions that would occur as power plants installed controls aimed at other air pollutants. (What?)

"EPA is acting to correct a mistake," Hostetler said.

Judges David Tatel and Judith Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia questioned Hostetler closely on whether the EPA followed procedures outlined in Clean Air Act amendments passed 17 years ago by a Congress that was frustrated with the agency's slow pace.

"Just because an agency made a decision doesn't mean it's lawful," Tatel said.

It could be months before the appellate judges issue a decision on the lawsuit. If the judges overturn the EPA's emissions credits rule, the agency would have to adopt tougher regulations limiting mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants. That likely would lead to a legal challenge from the electric utility industry.

So this fight is far from over. But at least it is getting underway. I found some more interesting points on this suit from The Institute for Southern Studies;

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the American Nurses Association and Physicians for Social Responsibility are going to court today to present their legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Mercury Rule -- which despite its name actually exempts power plants from tough Clean Air Act requirements to control the harmful neurotoxin.

The groups -- which together represent more than 300,000 health professionals -- are being represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center. They are joining attorneys general from 14 states (though none in the South), a dozen national environmental groups and several Indian tribes that are also challenging the rule, which was released in May 2005.

"This challenge represents unprecedented legal action by these public health groups, an indication of how severe doctors, nurses and pediatricians and other health workers know the threat of mercury emissions to be," says SELC attorney John Suttles. "With this rule, the EPA not only ignored the requirements of the Clean Air Act, it also ignored the advice of thousands of health experts, choosing a clean up plan that does too little, too late to be protective of public health."

While Clean Air Act requirements would rid the nation of 90 percent of mercury emissions by the end of next year, CAMR would allow power plants to continue to emit much more mercury for much longer -- nearly 20 tons every year until 2025. At the same time, EPA would allow plants to use a cap-and-trade scheme where they could trade mercury pollution credits with other, less-polluting plants. That would create mercury "hot spots" that could lead to dangerous levels of human exposure.

Hg-ATME will continue to cover these proceedings, it is hard to imagine an outcome that would not support the plaintiffs here, but we have all been surprised before. This news broke earlier in December while I was busy with other matters, it deserved more immediate coverage by this outlet but all I can say is better late than never.

Some Nevada Mining Reports Open Eyes On Extent Of Mercury Emissions

As Hg-ATME has reported (several Nevada Posts are here) Nevada began cracking down on gold mining operations in the state, requiring testing to actually determine the levels of mercury being emitted. Heretofore the amounts were only estimated by the mines, and estimated quite poorly I might add. From Yubanet.com an excerpt from a recent article;

New emissions data, obtained from the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP), show that northern Nevada gold mines are still under-reporting substantial amounts of mercury air pollution. It also reveals that a number of mines that were previously considered small sources of mercury air pollution are actually very large sources, yet these mines have few pollution controls in place. Until 2006, mines were not required to actually measure mercury releases, only estimate mercury emissions.
[...]
"We now know that hundreds of pounds of mercury are needlessly going into our air from mines that have minimal controls in place," said John Hadder of Great Basin Mine Watch. "This new information is a wake-up call. We want the State and industry to agree to get controls in place right away."

Under Nevada's new mercury regulations, the four largest mercury polluters were prioritized as "Tier 1" mines and all the smaller emitters as "Tier 2" mines based on information available at the time. The new emissions data, however, reveals that a number of the Tier 2 mines are actually large sources of mercury air pollution. For example:

* The Florida Canyon mine submitted no mercury pollution reports to the EPA for the last eight years, yet the new information indicates that the mine is a large source of emissions, reporting 440 pounds of emissions in a 2006 report to NDEP.

* The Rawhide Mine submitted reports to the EPA of just 0-1 pound of emissions for each of previous 8 years, yet it reported 351 pounds of emissions to NDEP in 2006. The mine is currently winding down operations.

Other "Tier 2" mines that are now reporting large emissions include the Newmont Lone Tree mine at 622 pounds and the Glamis Gold mine at 1,010 pounds in 2006.

And this added information from Desert News below;

An employee at the Florida Canyon mine referred questions to mine manager Martin Price, who was not immediately available for comment.

The Rawhide mine is owned by Utah-based Kennecott, a subsidiary of the international conglomerate Rio Tinto.

Rio Tinto spokesman Louie Cononelos said he could not comment until hearing back from Rawhide officials.

Mark Amodei, president of the Nevada Mining Association, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The three environmental groups gave the two mines a 60-day notice of their intent to sue over alleged failure to report mercury emissions as required under federal law.

US House Votes to Ban Mercury Export, But Wait, White House Opposes

And so it goes. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, proposed a bill that would ban the export of highly toxic mercury and force federal agencies to find permanent storage facilities for their stockpiles. This House vote on H.R. 1534 was so unanimous it carried on a voice vote. Sens. Barack Obama, D-IL, and Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, have introduced a companion bill in the Senate.

But even with bi-partisan support the Bush White House opposes the measure. From the AP article below;

The White House said in a statement that an export ban might lead to more mining and an increase in the release of mercury into the environment.

I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but that makes no sense to me. How could banning the availability of the substance used in mining gold lead to more mining and an increase of mercury emissions? Someone explain that rationale to me, please.