(Host) Vermont has joined nine other states to ask that the Environmental Protection Agency withdraw its proposed rules on mercury pollution.
The attorneys general of the states argue that the EPA rules would violate the Clean Air Act and would allow many power plants to continue releasing the toxic mercury. Erick Titrud is an assistant attorney general.
(Titrud) “Even were this proposal legally supportable the reductions are not aggressive enough to mitigate what is a really serious public health and environmental risk.”
(Host) Mercury is considered a hazardous air pollutant that’s regulated by the Clean Air Act. But the EPA has backed away from an approach that would limit mercury through required controls on power plants. Instead, the agency wants to allow a trading system that would allow some plants to continue to pollute.