Editorials Decry Mercury Decision

Here is an example of what editorial boards around the state thought about the Air Boards' recent decision.

October 9, 2007
Indianapolis Star Editorial:
Even mercury means 'slow' when air quality's at stake
Our position: The state has caved again on a pollution challenge.

Mercury is just one of a host of pollutants that Indiana's coal-fired electric power plants spew into the air and water in greater proportions than most other states. But it may be the deadliest.

A toxin that attacks the nervous system, mercury damages the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys and immune system of people of all ages; it is especially hazardous to fetuses and small children. It can cause developmental problems, for example, that slow learning for a lifetime.

Given that one in 12 American women of childbearing age has too much mercury in her bloodstream, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Indiana has more mercury in its environment than the national average, it's only common sense that the state would do something about it.

It has. Bowing to the narrow economic concerns of the powerful utilities lobby, it has done the minimum.

While surrounding states have moved to set their own, more stringent standards, the Indiana Air Pollution Control Board has decided to stop at what the federal law requires -- a 66 percent reduction in mercury emissions by 2018, which most likely means 2025 with various credits that can be traded off.

The Hoosier Environmental Council had argued for a 90 percent cut by 2010, maintaining that technology now in place could attain that level with only a couple dollars' hike to the typical monthly electric bill. The advocacy group Improving Kids' Environment had sought a compromise between the HEC proposal and that of the feds and the utilities.

Alas, even a compromise on Hoosier health was too much to ask of a state government in thrall to the wishes of industry. Any possible rate increase was too much for the generators of emissions and for the Daniels administration. As it happens, the federal minimum will mean just that -- zero in new costs for curbing mercury. This, after months of negotiations between the power companies and informed, reasonable citizens' groups. Is this really what electricity customers would want once they knew the facts?

As with virtually every environmental issue, most recently the BP refinery controversy in northern Indiana, the administration has let shortsighted competitive considerations trump long-term physical -- and economic -- health. Never mind that our competitor states aren't afraid to cut pollution more than we do.

Public outcry won a reversal of appallingly lax dumping rules for the BP project. Perhaps it's not too late for that sort of pressure to be brought to bear here. It won't happen without leadership. Are there any legislators with sufficient interest in the well-being of children to raise a stink?

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