No, this isn't a horoscope. I'm not going to tell you about your love life, or your business prospects. This is about poisoning your children.Under new rules presented by George W. Bush and his lackeys at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), new "limits" on the emission of mercury from power plants will go into effect, lowering the amount of mercury they can emit. So far, so good, you might think. But as with all complex issues, the devil is in the details. And this time, the details could do far more harm than good.
Mercury, like lead, is a heavy metal that causes severe brain damage when consumed in even small amounts, particularly in young children. When power plants emit mercury, it gets into the rivers and lakes, where it finds its way to aquatic plants and eventually fish. When people eat the tainted fish, we absorb the mercury and get poisoned.
Under the new rules, each state's power plants will only be allowed to emit a certain amount of mercury, roughly 15% less than is now being emitted. The states then require each power plant to limit its mercury emission. The problem is, any power plant that is emitting less than their limit can "sell" the rest of their allotment to another power plant. The plant that "buys" higher limits can then emit far more mercury than they are now.
This type of "pollutant trading" can work when dealing with something like sulfur dioxide, because sulfur dioxide is a gas that travels on the wind. If you have three factories all emitting this gas, it doesn't matter much which factory emits how much, as long as the total amount is small enough.
The problem with implementing this plan with mercury is that mercury doesn't travel well. It tends to stay in the area. So if a local power plant is emitting two or three times as much mercury as the local environment can handle, the fish - and eventually the people, especially children - will be severely poisoned.
On top of that, the EPA won't be using these rules until 2010, when George W. Bush is safely out of office. In the meantime, current rules are very lax - one might say practically nonexistent - on the subject of mercury emissions.
And what is the Bush administration's answer to the problem of mercury poisoning? "Eat less fish." That's right, they're telling us to stay away from a food that should be very good for us, helping to lower cholesterol and providing a wide variety of nutrients. What's worse, many people eating the fish they get from local lakes and rivers are rural poor, people who cannot afford to cut back because they don't have the money to buy the food they need.
So, once again, the poorest Americans and their children, the most helpless members of our society, will be poisoned so that the owners of power plants can continue to pollute. There is hope. Nine states have sued in federal court, seeking to overturn these rules.
Meanwhile, perhaps George W. Bush and the power plant owners should eat more fish.
Copyright 2005, Dan Jacoby
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