Posted on 02/09/2008 11:20:32 AM PST by shove_it
In a victory for environmentalists and a setback for big U.S. coal-burning utilities, a federal court ruled on Friday that the Environmental Protection Agency must fundamentally rework its mercury rules for utilities.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act in 2005 when it exempted coal plants from the strictest emission controls for mercury and other toxic substances like arsenic, lead and nickel.
The EPA's "Clean Air Mercury Rule" would have created a "cap-and-trade" program to allow utilities to swap rights to emit mercury to comply with overall limits that would reduce nationwide emissions by 70 percent by 2018...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Here’s another related article about FutureGen backing being withdrawn by DOE:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080206/il_futuregen.html?.v=1
Stupid is as stupid does. Just goes to show energy independence is not something that is taking seriously. The one thing this country has is huge reserves of coal. Two Facts about coal in the US.
Coal reserves stand at 275 billion tons, an amount that is greater than any other nation in the world.
Are capable of meeting domestic demand for more than 250 years at current rates of consumption.
Oooh, getting mercury out? How about a look at those STUPID curly light-bulbs. They are loaded with mercury.
It seems like the DOE is delaying now that Bush is on the way out. The liberals that run the place never intend to move forward with clean coal technology.
The FutureGen experiment has the support of Sen. Durbin only because the power plant is to be built in IL — details in the linked article in post #2. My AEP stock is tanking. Guess I’ll have to short it.
“Clean coal is on the ropes.”
Considering that the cleanest coal was put out of reach by that idiot schemer clinton, for a deal with riady, we’re screwed! I must admit to not getting cap and trade stuff myself. Sounds like carbon credits. But progress is being made, and I guess caps and trades would have been a sensible approach. Now watch our energy bills shoot up even more! The enviroweenies don’t seem to understand that all the money comes out of ours and their pockets
A key difference is that mercury is a real pollutant. CO2 is not a pollutant. I agree that cap and trade is a sensible approach for real pollutants. Although I do not know the mercury regulations, I am confident that the cap and trade approach has some constraints on the amount of mercury emitted especially in urban areas. This judge looks off the charts.
Is there any mercury in ANWAR?
Here’s another related article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idCAN1444951620080214?rpc=44
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.