U.S. EPA Limits Mercury Emissions From Power Plants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set the first limits on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants to prevent nerve damage in children who eat fish contaminated with the poison.
The order will cut annual mercury pollution to 38 tons by 2010, or 21 percent less than 1999 emissions, under a ``cap-and- trade'' program similar to those for acid rain and smog, the agency said. The system lets utilities that don't meet pollution limits buy credits from those who do.
The action comes less than a week after the agency issued tighter rules on two pollutants that cause acid rain and smog. Those regulations for power plants in 28 eastern states will reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide by 70 percent and nitrogen oxide by 60 percent over the next decade, according to the EPA.
...The cap-and-trade system was set up under the federal Clean Air Act to reduce air pollution. The Bush administration argues that the market-oriented, industry-backed program of trading pollution allowances is more effective at curbing emissions.
Environmentalists say the trading system can lead to concentrations of pollutants in certain regions of the country and is given to uneven enforcement. They also say the mercury rule gives utilities too long to make meaningful cuts in emissions.