Backed by a group of 31 senators, including Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, the resolution has garnered enough support to bypass the jurisdiction of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, chaired by Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, an ardent opponent of environmental and public health regulations.

In order to pass, the resolution will have to gain a simple majority in both chambers of Congress plus the President's signature. Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Tom Allen (D-ME), Marty Meehan (D-MA), and Henry Waxman (D-CA), have introduced a similar resolution in the House. The sponsors recognize that passage is highly unlikely. But they are hopeful that the effort will at least help to expose the flaws in the new EPA mercury rule, and call further attention to the toxin's harmful affects on human health.

Filed under the Congressional Review Act, the resolution provides Congress a seldom-used opportunity to disapprove a federal agency's rule. If successful, the motion would not only send EPA back to the drawing board, it would also prevent the development of a similar rule in the future. If the President vetoes the resolution, Congress could potentially override it.

The administration's new EPA rule exempts power plants from the list of polluting sources subject to strict mercury controls. Yet power plants are the largest man-made source of mercury emissions in the U.S., contributing 41 percent of the annual total. [1] By taking power plants off the list, the "delisting rule" led to the establishment of a cap-and-trade program that would limit mercury emissions from 48 tons a year to 38 tons in 2010 and 15 tons in 2018.

The "delisting rule" rescinded a 2000 EPA finding that "it is necessary and appropriate" for all power plants to install "maximum achievable control technology" (MACT) to reduce mercury and other hazardous emissions. A MACT standard under the existing Clean Air Act would have required power plants to reduce their mercury emissions by about 90 percent by 2008, a decade earlier than the administration's timetable.

Critics of the current mercury rule charge that it violates the Clean Air Act, because the EPA removed power plants from the source list without first proving that power plants do not emit hazardous air pollutants at levels that damage human health.

Citing the illegal nature of the current mercury rules, Senator Leahy said in a press release, "By revoking the earlier EPA finding and deciding instead to coddle the biggest mercury polluters, the Administration is saying it is no longer necessary or appropriate to adequately control mercury emissions." [2]

EPA's mercury rules have drawn lawsuits from 14 states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin. The rules have also triggered strong opposition from a broad spectrum of environmental and public health groups, as well as government agencies such as the General Accountability Office, and the EPA's own Inspector General.

Mercury is an extremely harmful neurotoxin, yielding serious health consequences for developing fetuses and children. Even low-level exposure has been linked to learning disabilities, lowered IQ, attention and memory damage, and delayed onset of walking and talking abilities. One in six women have levels of mercury in their blood that EPA classifies as unsafe.

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SOURCES:
[1] "Mercury Rule Discharge Petition Filed," Senator Leahy's website, Jul. 18, 2005
[2] "Resolution to disapprove EPA mercury rule introduced in Senate," U.S. PIRG, Jun. 29, 2005
[3] "Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy on the introduction of a resolution to disapprove the administration's mercury rule," Senator Leahy's website, Jun. 29, 2005