Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle announced Monday that Wisconsin will file a lawsuit against the Bush Administration for their inadequate environmental standards regarding mercury emissions.
The lawsuit results from controversy surrounding the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Mercury rule, which the group enacted March 15. The new regulations are drawing support from businesses but criticism from environmentalists as well as several key state officials, who say the federal rule did not go far enough.
“If we are going to succeed in protecting the health and welfare of Wisconsin’s citizens we must have a strong, effective federal policy to decrease emissions,” Doyle said at a press conference. “Unfortunately, the Bush Administration does not see this as a priority and has proposed regulations that fail to protect our most vulnerable citizens from the devastating impacts of mercury pollution.”
Wisconsin will join nine other states in filing the lawsuit in the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Doyle’s decision to sue follows Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager’s challenge of the power plant mercury rule.
Doyle said the goal of the lawsuit is to ask the court to overturn the lax federal mercury standards and instead enforce stricter rules.
“I wish we had an administration in Washington that held our same priorities and recognized the devastating effect of mercury emissions,” Doyle said. “But it’s clear that we don’t.”
Department of Natural Resources Bureau Director Lloyd Eagan said the federal law regarding mercury reduction is less stringent than current Wisconsin regulations. The Clean Air Mercury rule aims to reduce mercury emissions by 69 percent by 2018, whereas the state rule would lower pollution by 80 percent by the same year.
If the lawsuit is not successful in challenging the federal law, Wisconsin businesses can choose to follow the less strict EPA rule, Eagan added.
The state will fight the EPA rulings, because they are disappointed the agency is claiming that a 21 percent reduction by 2010 is the best that can be done to reduce mercury emissions. Opponents of the federal order also believe it is unfair the EPA rule allows 19 states, but not Wisconsin, to increase emissions until 2010.
State environmental groups are hailing Doyle’s decision to sue the Bush Administration, because of the dangerous effects of mercury in the atmosphere.
The Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group said the federal government is not doing enough to protect citizens, according to their release. A study released last year conducted by the EPA found 100 percent of Wisconsin fish samples contained mercury levels exceeding the safe limit for women.
“The absurdity is that the EPA’s own data shows the nature of the health threat mercury poses,” WISPIRG State Director Jennifer Giegerich said in a release.
Mercury is a very potent neurotoxin and is especially harmful to humans because it accumulates in the environment and often enters the food chain, according to Eagan.
The most susceptible members of the population are small children and fetuses of pregnant women, Eagan said.
According to the EPA, the most popular route of entry into the food chain is fish, and women of childbearing age as well as children under 15 should not eat large sport fish, which contain higher levels of mercury, more than once a month.
“Small exposures [of mercury] can result in delayed development, attention deficit disorders and other neurological problems,” Eagan said.
But even with all the criticism surrounding the Clean Air Mercury rule, the EPA believes the order is a step in the right direction — this is the first time ever a federal rule would enforce mercury emissions from power plants, and the U.S. is the first country in the world to address this remaining non-regulated source of mercury pollution.
“We remain committed to working with Congress to … achieve greater certainty and nationwide emissions reductions,” EPA acting Administrator Steve Johnson said in a release. “But we need regulations in place now.”
