On December 18th, a coalition of public health and environmental groups filed a lawsuit in federal court here, seeking a firm and enforceable new deadline for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require deep reductions in mercury and other toxic air pollutants emitted from coal- and oil-fired power plants. Power plants are the nation's largest unregulated source of mercury pollution, and also emit enormous quantities of lead, arsenic and other hazardous chemicals. If successful, the lawsuit would end six years of delay by the Bush administration.
Attorneys at Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), Clean Air Task Force, Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Waterkeeper Alliance filed the lawsuit today in DC District Court on behalf of American Nurses Association, CBF, Conservation Law Foundation, Environment America, Environmental Defense Fund, Izaak Walton League of America, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Ohio Environmental Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, and Waterkeeper Alliance.
Today's lawsuit follows President-elect Barack Obama's appointment of Lisa Jackson to head the agency. Groups expressed hope that the incoming administration will take a new approach to regulating pollution from power plants and act quickly to bring the problem under control.
"We are far past both the legal and, indeed, the moral deadline for EPA to take action to control toxic air emissions from this enormous industrial source of mercury and other poisons," said Clean Air Task Force attorney Ann B. Weeks. "At the same time we are hopeful that the Obama administration will act quickly to mandate the deep cuts in this pollution, as the Clean Air Act requires."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eight percent of American women of childbearing age have mercury in their bodies at levels high enough to put their babies at risk of birth defects, loss of IQ, learning disabilities and developmental problems.
"Children and women of childbearing age are at risk when power plants emit the levels of mercury they are emitting today
Enviroshop is maintained by dedicated NetSys Interactive Inc. owners & employees who generously contribute their time to maintenance & editing, web design, custom programming, & website hosting for Enviroshop.