Wouldn't want those industries to be responsible

New Jersey will sue to overturn a new Bush administration policy they say sets a far-too-liberal deadline for power plants to cut toxic mercury emissions

[...]

State officials joined environmental groups in criticizing the long-debated mercury regulation unveiled Tuesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Detractors have long called the EPA's overall target of a 70 percent mercury-emissions reduction far lower than what could be achieved. On Tuesday, their hoots were even louder as EPA estimates revealed that there was no definitive deadline for industries to achieve that benchmark.

Instead, EPA's own analysis projects that the program will result in reducing mercury emissions from the 48 tons released into the air in 1999 to 31.3 tons, or by 35 percent, in 2010.

Ten years after that, in 2020, the EPA still only expects emissions to fall by about half, to 24.3 tons.

EPA Assistant Administrator Jeff Holmstead said the agency expects to reach the 70 percent target only at "full implementation." When that occurs will largely depend on how quickly pollution prevention technology improves, Holmstead said in a press conference.

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The new program uses incentives rather than enforcement threats to get plants to install more pollution controls and prevent airborne mercury from fouling rivers and streams and poisoning fish.
  North Jersey Media article

Yeah, that's going to work.

Many argued that the West - where several new coal-fired plants are proposed - will actually see an increase in mercury, a pollutant that impairs neurological development.

An analysis of EPA data by Environmental Defense indicates that mercury pollution in Colorado could increase by 148 percent from 1999 levels by 2010 under the new mercury regulations. Another look, by the Natural Resources Defense Council, predicts an even greater increase.

[...]

Officials with Xcel Energy, which operates seven of the 12 coal-fired power plants in Colorado, said customers won't be hit with the kind of rate hikes that would have been triggered under the "command and control" approach endorsed by environmentalists.
  Denver Post article

See how industry is looking out for your interests? Now you'll still have that money to give your doctor when the mercury poisoning kicks in.

And blogger is still acting stupid.