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Report:
Mercury Reductions Feasible, Necessary
MIRS, June 20, 2005
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The final report
and recommendations from the Michigan Mercury Utility Workgroup
were released to the public today after nearly two years of
analysis and debate. Proponents of the report say it details how
Michigan can deeply cut toxic mercury pollution from our power
plants.
The utility industry and environmental stakeholders in the
workgroup reached agreement on the need for mercury reductions
and the potential for achieving them. Today their
recommendations were sent officially to Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) Director Steve CHESTER and Gov.
Jennifer GRANHOLM.
"These findings clearly support the need for action. Mercury
exposure, which is linked to lowered IQs, learning disabilities,
and other health problems, impacts hundreds of thousands of
children born each year,” said Dr. William WEIL, Professor
Emeritus, Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State
University. "By stepping forward to enact protective mercury
standards, Governor Granholm would be taking a huge step forward
for children's health."
The nearly 300-page report thoroughly documents the sources of
mercury, its many impacts on public health and the environment,
mercury emissions and deposition in Michigan, federal
regulations of mercury, and other states' actions to reduce
mercury emissions. The report details the types of control
technologies available to reduce mercury, the costs associated
with available mercury controls, and mechanisms that could
provide flexibility and make controls most cost-effective.
The report and recommendations found common ground between
industry and public interest stakeholders. Among the
recommendations, the workgroup members agreed that:
- Michigan's coal-fired power plants will be controlled for
mercury.
- Michigan can achieve greater mercury reductions than those
required under the federal rule.
- New generation, new control technologies, efficiency, and
alternative energy are key to continued environmental
improvements.
"Our workgroup report confirms that 90 percent mercury
reductions are achievable, affordable and absolutely necessary
to protect Michigan's children," said PIRGIM Environmental
Advocate Kate MADIGAN, member of the workgroup. "Ninety percent
mercury reductions can be achieved by 2013 in Michigan, and to
protect our children's health the Governor should require
nothing less."
Pursuing mercury reductions has been a priority issue for PIRGIM.
While consensus was reached on certain general principles,
industry representatives failed to agree to required reductions,
instead opting for voluntary programs alone to move beyond the
weak federal mercury rule.
"This is not a matter of waiting for industry to agree to be
regulated. This is a matter of Governor Granholm seeing the need
and opportunity to reduce toxic mercury from the State's largest
source and taking action," said David GARD, Energy Policy
Specialist for the Michigan Environmental Council.
"The federal rule does not protect Michigan," said Zoe LIPMAN,
Program Manager at the National Wildlife Federation's Great
Lakes office, and workgroup member. "Not only doesn't it protect
our children's health or the health of the Great Lakes which we
depend on, but it leaves proven innovative new energy
technologies on the shelf, and it undermines the Midwest
industries that would supply and modernize our energy
infrastructure. It is also under legal challenge by 13 other
states. We need healthy families, restored Great Lakes, and
vibrant modern industries. We need a rule that meets Michigan's
needs."
"The facts about mercury are clear. Mercury is a serious threat
to public health and our way of life, and our economy, we have
cost-effective technology to solve the problem - and other
states are already doing so," Lipman added, "This is an
investment in our future, an investment we need to make."
The groups calling for mercury reductions say they're holding
Granholm to her 2002 promise to phase-out and eliminate mercury
emissions from Michigan's coal-fired power plants.
She convened the Michigan Mercury Utility Workgroup in August
2003 with the charge of recommending a strategy to achieve
"significant emissions reductions and phase-out of mercury
emissions from coal-fired power plants in Michigan." In a letter
to Michigan citizens in 2004, the Governor wrote that the
Workgroup was charged with a plan to achieve 90 percent
reductions.
Originally slated to take six months, the Workgroup ultimately
met for almost two years.
Groups Split on Mercury Report
Gongwer News Service, June 20, 2005
There was significant consensus between utilities, environmental
groups and conservation groups on the Electric Utility Workgroup
on Mercury Emissions - as long as neither side stepped beyond
recent federal rules on mercury emissions reductions.
The environmental and conservation groups trumpeted findings in
the 300-page report that a 90 percent reduction in mercury
emissions from the state's coal-fired power plants by 2013 was
both feasible and affordable. They called on Governor Jennifer
Granholm to act quickly on administrative rules to implement the
requirement.
But utilities said such drastic reductions were neither feasible
nor affordable and argued the only effect of the proposal would
be to further skew Michigan's economy compared to neighboring
states.
Ms. Granholm launched the task force as part of a campaign
promise to reduce mercury emissions in the state. Environmental
Quality Director Steven Chester is reviewing the report and will
recommend further actions by the administration, DEQ officials
said.
The report calls for a two-phase process, with power plants
implementing the new federal requirements and beginning to look
at further reductions by 2010 with the 90 percent reduction
required by 2013.
Environmental Groups, though participating in the process, had
chided the task force for taking so long to develop a report -
and the governor for waiting for that report. What had
originally been designated a six-month process has taken nearly
two years.
"The release of the report ends further delays," said Kate
Madigan with Public Interest Research Group in Michigan and a
member of the workgroup. "We expect her to act yet this summer."
But Lou Pocalujka with Consumers Energy, also a member of the
task force, said the time it took to generate the report
indicated the complexity of the issue, both in developing a
consensus and in developing any new regulations based on the
report. "If it was easy, if it was cut and dried it would have
been done in six months, but it wasn't," he said.
In the end, the governor will have to weigh the higher priority
for the state: reduced mercury emissions and potential removal
of the toxin from the state's fisheries or continued efforts
toward lower energy prices.
Zoe Lipman with the National Wildlife Federation Great Lakes
Office said the technology being proposed would cost the average
homeowner about 69 cents a month, with the average commercial
customer paying an additional $5.87 and the average industrial
customer $116.
And Paul Zugger with the Michigan United Conservation Clubs said
the proposal would increase revenue from sport fishing in the
state as the mercury consumption warnings are revised and
removed. "A big part of fishing is enjoying your catch and
sharing it with your family," he said. "We cannot do that
because of mercury contamination."
Mr. Pocalujka said those additional costs for equipment would
mean additional burdens on Michigan businesses that neighboring
states are not imposing.
And he said much of the technology for which the environmental
groups are arguing is not yet through testing. He said some of
the chemicals used in those processes could also prove to be
biohazards.
He also questioned whether the 90 percent emissions reduction
could be accomplished. "You're talking about controlling or
shutting down every unit in the state," he said. "I would hazard
a guess that's close to being impossible."
The utilities agreed to the 90 percent reduction figure as a
target, but only for voluntary reductions, not the mandate the
other groups seek.
Michigan's Electric Utility Workgroup Report on Mercury
Emissions from Coal-Fired Power Plants (PDF)
http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-aqd-air-aqe-mercury-report.pdf
Report to Director Steven E. Chester dated June 20, 2005.
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