States File Petition Vs. EPA Mercury Rules

States File Petition Vs. EPA Mercury Rules
16 States File Petition Challenging Environmental Protection Agency's Mercury Rules

By BETH DeFALCO

TRENTON, N.J. Jun 19, 2006 (AP)— New Jersey's attorney general filed a court petition Monday on behalf of 16 states challenging the federal Environmental Protection Agency's new mercury pollution rules.

The petition asks a federal judge to reactivate a lawsuit filed last year challenging a rule known as "cap-and-trade."

Cap-and-trade allows power plants to buy emissions reduction credits from plants whose emissions fall below target levels, rather than installing their own mercury emissions controls. It is to go into effect in 2010.

The lawsuit was put on hold in October after the EPA agreed to reconsider the rules, but on May 31, the agency's announced revisions didn't included cap-and-trade.

"After six months of stalling, EPA not only failed to address the grave dangers posed to communities and children by its cap-and-trade program for mercury emissions, it made the program worse by further weakening standards," New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber said. The petition was filed in federal court in Washington.
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