Such a Curious Dream: Obama EPA Abandons Bush Mercury Rules
Posted February 6, 2009 in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
"'Wake up, Alice dear!' said her sister; 'Why, what a long sleep you've had!' 'Oh, I've had such a curious dream!' said Alice."
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
When Alice awoke from her phantasmagorical journey to Wonderland, having escaped the capricious tyranny of the Queen of Hearts and her court of freaks and frauds, she found herself resting in the comforting lap of her sister. After exclaiming what a curious dream she had, Alice bounded up and ran home, rejoining reality.
January 20, 2009 marked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's escape from Wonderland.
And today marked EPA's welcome return to reality.
This morning, on instruction from newly-confirmed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the Solicitor General asked the Supreme Court to drop the Bush administration's desperate appeal to resurrect EPA's illegal and harmful power plant mercury rule. The Bush administration had petitioned the Supreme Court in October 2008 after several filing extensions that suggested even the former administration's Solicitor General was reluctant to appeal the Bush EPA's thoroughly illegal undertaking.
Indeed, one of President Bush's appointed conservative judges joined two others in February 2008 unanimously striking down the two harmful power plant mercury rules that the Bush administration had substituted for the stronger, faster rules the Clean Air Act requires to sharply reduce all hazardous air pollution from power plants, mercury included.
These three judges openly mocked the legal "reasoning" underlying the Bush EPA rules, declaring that the Bush administration's excuses for evading statutory requirements "deploy[ed] the logic of the Queen of Hearts, substituting EPA's desires for the plain text of" the law. Before relieving utility companies from the Clean Air Act's protections, the law required EPA to make a rigorous health-based showing that no power plant in the country would emit hazardous air pollution that harmed public health or the environment. EPA could not make this showing, of course, so the agency did not even pretend to do so; instead Bush administration officials concocted an upside-down version of the law akin to the capricious Queen's "sentence first -- verdict afterwards."
Just as important as the Obama administration's action today abandoning the illegal Bush-era mercury rules is the affirmative commitment that President Obama's EPA embraced. In the Solicitor General's filing, and in a morning speech delivered by Administrator Jackson to the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference, the Obama administration EPA actually embraced the obligation to issue protective, timely controls to reduce all hazardous air pollutants from power plants using the strongest tools provided by the Clean Air Act.
The Obama administration EPA is committing to clean up power plants' toxic pollution because it's the right thing to do. Not because some court ordered them to after the agency broke the law.
Let me extend a hearty welcome to the new reality at EPA.
The knaves and lizards from the Queen's court are still with us, alas, with utility industry lobbyists and lawyers presenting a separate petition to the Supreme Court to resurrect the harmful Bush-era mercury rules.
But the Obama administration's request to dismiss the case and abandon the Bush administration's high court appeal, makes it highly unlikely that the Supreme Court justices will wish to hear the case and grant industry's petition.
The long nightmare will soon be over.
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Comments
Simon Wakefield — Feb 7 2009 09:50 AM
Good gracious - what is wrong with you people? I appreciate that every small step needs to be celebrated, & that the US is still love-struck by Obama, but really - this new guy has not yet committed himself to moving beyond Big Oil, he has not committed himself to taking leadership in reducing CO2 emissions, he has not committed himself to ensuring that Alaska be saved from exploitation and drilling, nor that mariners cease all active sonar. He has not challenged the recent imprisonment of an ELF activist and mother of 2 for an impossibly long sentence of 21 years for property damage (while we are all bailing out bankers for their fraudulent crimes, while killer cops get pardoned, etc.). Why does the NRDC not support ELF and ALF - these are stalwart defenders of the earth and its myriad inhabitants - and instead crows breathlessly about celebrity endorsements and gasps in praise because Obama has decided to roll-out energy efficient standards for appliances. It would be laudatory if he questioned the need for yet more gizmos and gadgets, but that really would be a step too far.
Really NRDC - quit being so love-struck & start challenging this largely mindless cult of Obama worship. Fine - he's black. Get over it and challenge him to actually make material changes to the way America does business. Please don't reply with "he's only just started, give him time". Tell that to the whales and dolphins who die daily as a result of active sonar; tell that to the animals being tested on in labs for human benefits, and on and on ... . They don't have the luxury of waiting any longer.
I know that NRDC is doing a good job; I'm not knocking that. I am saying however that get over Obama-love and start challenging him to do more and quickly, and to also start joining forces with others who are doing direct action in defense of the planet and its inhabitants. We are in this fight together: don't let the FBI and its "green scare" McCarthyism dilute the strength of conjoint actions. We need to stand up for each other in order to better protect and preserve what precious little there is left of this fragile planet!
John Walke — Feb 7 2009 10:05 AM
Wow. Was all of that really prompted by my modest post?
I have been fighting to clean up mercury and other air toxics from power plants at NRDC since 2000, and NRDC has been doing the same since at least 1989. So yesterday's news was a milestone worth highlighting.
I'm sorry if you took it the wrong way, Mr. Wakefield.
David Pettit — Feb 7 2009 10:43 AM
This is the kind of change we need. Now let's have the Obama Administration dismiss the ill-considered lawsuit by the Federal Maritime Commission to shut down the LA ports' Clean Truck Programs. Note to the two FMC commissioners who have been the shipping industry's lapdogs: feed your head.
Ashley — Feb 10 2009 11:39 AM
Im not an expert or anything but I think America's move foreward has a lot to do with the alliance of the people as a whole. If America is not convinced that we need a change, it is still not going to happen as fast as we want the change to come. The government has say but the people have just as much because as long as everyone is complacant and not fighting, nothing is going to happen fast enough. We as people need to change each others minds, not soley the government.
Ashley — Feb 10 2009 11:43 AM
That was not a comment against the government because I do like what Obama is doing now. I am just saying that I think we rely on the government too much, for them to change everything for us, when in reality, everyone has an impact on this Earth and I don't think people really realize that. Where I'm from, people generally do not take action and do not care about the environment. It's sad, but for these kinds of places, us as individuals need to stand out and stand up to make the change as well.