PennFuture Dismayed By Senate Committee Mercury Vote; Vote Out of Step with Majority of Pennsylvanians Who Want Strong Mercury Rules.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) today urged members of the Pennsylvania Senate to reject SB 1201, a bill that would block the state's Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) proposed rules requiring coal-fired power plants to reduce their toxic mercury pollution by 90 percent by 2015.

The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee today voted 10-1 to move the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Only Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf (R-Bucks, Montgomery) voted against this bill, which, contrary to the contentions of some supporters, would prohibit - not create - strong mercury protections.

Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that can interfere with the proper development of babies' brains and lead to learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder and delays in speaking and motor development. Pennsylvania power plants are the nation's second largest source of toxic mercury pollution and fish in lakes, rivers and streams statewide are contaminated with mercury.

SB 1201 would stop the DEP mercury rulemaking and force Pennsylvania to fall back on an illegal federal rule that allows power plants to buy pollution allowances instead of installing pollution control equipment to actually clean up. Proponents of SB 1201 incorrectly claim that the federal rule will create nearly as much in mercury reductions as the state plan. But a Congressional Research Service study found that mercury emissions would be reduced by at most only 70 percent by 2030 because of the banking and trading scheme of the federal rule.

A poll recently conducted by Madonna Opinion Research shows that 80 percent of Pennsylvanians want mercury pollution cut at every power plant and do not want a system that allows plants to buy pollution allowances rather than cleaning up, as the federal rule would do.

"Stopping DEP's mercury rule would be a profound mistake for Pennsylvania," said John Hanger, PennFuture's President and CEO. "PennFuture calls on the full Senate to reject this bill. Senators can vote 'no' on SB 1201 with the confidence that the public fully supports strong mercury rules."

PennFuture is a statewide public interest membership organization with offices in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and the newly opened Center for Energy, Enterprise and the Environment in West Chester. PennFuture has been called "Pennsylvania's leading environmental organization" by the Philadelphia Inquirer.