We aren't too fond of our grandstanding yet ineffective governor, but at least he reads the newspapers, unlike certain other titular heads of our misguided country. Of course, Gov Bobbleheadevich is prone to the common politician's disease of “Talk Big, Act Small”, wherein all sorts of proposals get made, creating headlines, but nothing substantive actually gets done. So, we'll have to see.
Governor seeks 90% mercury reduction Coal plants would have to comply by '09
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is making an election-year push to force Illinois' coal-fired power plants to dramatically curb mercury emissions within the next three years.Citing a recent Tribune series on mercury contamination in fish, the governor will call for new state rules Thursday that are far more stringent than limits the Bush administration is proposing for power plants nationwide.
Utilities would be required to cut mercury emissions from Illinois plants by an average of 90 percent by July 2009.
The utility industry, an influential lobby that in the past has dodged tougher limits on air pollution, will fight the Blagojevich plan. Power companies prefer the less stringent federal proposal, which would require coal plants to cut emissions by 70 percent by 2018.
If adopted, Illinois' rules would be among the toughest in the U.S. aimed at reducing the leading source of mercury, a toxic metal that can cause learning disabilities in children and neurological problems in adults.
Apparently, cleaning up power plants has a rapid effect on the surrounding area:
Some recent research suggests that mercury levels in fish can drop significantly once emissions from nearby sources of the metal are reduced.For instance, after Florida imposed tough regulations on waste incinerators, the top source of mercury in that state, levels of the metal in largemouth bass and wading birds in the Everglades dropped more than 60 percent.
The Blagojevich administration thinks the same thing could happen in Illinois, since about two-thirds of the mercury that falls in the state is estimated to come from coal plants and other sources within state borders.
The Democratic governor and his aides remained sharply critical of the Bush administration's mercury proposal. After studying the issue for the past six months, Blagojevich said, he decided to take more aggressive action to curb one of the most hazardous air pollutants.“There's technology that is available and can be put in place,” said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, who participated in discussions with the governor and his top aides. “It's just a matter of whether there's the political and policy will to do it.”
Blagojevich said he became aware of the problem when his wife, Patti, was pregnant and learned that eating fish could expose their child to mercury.
He said he made the decision to push the stringent rules after reading “The Mercury Menace,” a Tribune series published last month that documented a decades-long pattern by the federal government of downplaying a threat to public health.
“To me it's a very clear-cut case,” he said. “The possibility that some of these old coal-fired power plants are going to have to clean up or not survive is much better scenario than the alternative, which is to continue polluting our environment and contaminating our food supply.”
