HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 18, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry expressed its strong disappointment in Tuesday's approval by the state Environmental Quality Board of a burdensome regulatory package that implements an unnecessary state program to deal with mercury emissions from power plants. The Department of Environmental Protection proposal that was endorsed by the EQB rejects a commonsense federal approach to this national issue.
Gene Barr, PA Chamber Vice President of Political and Regulatory Affairs, said the move will result in higher electric costs for all Pennsylvanians; threaten jobs in the power generation, mining, and manufacturing industries; and pose harm to the reliability of the Commonwealth's electric supply.
"Even PennFuture, a group supporting the Department of Environmental Protection's plan, has acknowledged the possibility of plant closings as a result of implementation of Tuesday's action," Barr said, adding, "It is also interesting to note the concerns of the Public Utility Commission, whose chair has previously expressed his concerns over the impact of this proposal on electric reliability, and who on Tuesday noted that he is still unconvinced that the benefits of the state specific rule outweigh the costs."
The PA Chamber is also stunned that DEP has rejected a proposal from the power generation industry to install mercury emissions control technology on every coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania in order to achieve an 80 percent reduction by 2010 and 90 percent by 2015.
"This is the same technology that DEP has claimed will effectively reduce mercury emissions to these levels, and are the same deadlines and reductions required by DEP in their state rule," Barr said.
Most disturbingly, the additional costs to consumers and threat to jobs posed by the state regulation bring no health benefit beyond the national program. DEP, in response to a question posed by a member of the EQB, was unable to provide a single case study of anyone in Pennsylvania with an unsafe level of mercury in their blood.
Barr said this is consistent with the most recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, which found that "blood mercury levels in both the 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 subsamples are below levels considered associated with known health effects" and "report data for the period 1999-2002 show that all women of childbearing age had levels below a concentration associated with neurological effects in the fetus."
"With the increasing concern over energy costs, particularly as we approach the 2009-10 period when rate caps are lifted, the Pennsylvania Chamber is distressed by the apparent disregard shown by DEP for these concerns, as evidenced by its push for state regulations that will increase costs with no commensurate public health benefit," Barr said.
The state Senate has already moved, in an overwhelming bi-partisan vote, to block the Rendell administration and DEP from adopting the burdensome regulation. The PA Chamber encourages the House to move in the same manner and protect Pennsylvania's consumers, and employees in the mining, power and manufacturing industries from a regulatory plan that offers no additional benefit to human health or the environment.
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is the state's largest broad-based business association, with thousands of members statewide. More information is available on the Chamber's website at www.pachamber.org.
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry logo is available at http://media.primezone.com/prs/single/?pkgid=353