I was surprised to read Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Douglas Whitley’s letter to the editor, in which he wrote that Illinois’ plan to reduce mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants “fails the cost-benefit test.”
Maybe it does when you’re sitting comfortably at the southern California headquarters of Edison International–whose subsidiary, Midwest Generation, is the largest mercury polluter in Illinois–but here in Illinois we see the other side of the ledger: the enormous public health and environmental damage inflicted by toxic mercury pollution.
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in animals. When pregnant mothers eat contaminated fish, mercury passes to the fetus, resulting in developmental delays, decreased IQ and memory and attention problems. Nationally one in six potential mothers has high enough blood-mercury levels to put a fetus at risk.
Whitley ignored these dangers. His rhetoric follows the coal-power lobby’s strategy of: downplaying dangers of local mercury pollution and obfuscating the feasibility of reducing it.
Talk is cheap, and the power plant owners in Southern California are trying to save a buck.
Whitley cites overseas sources of mercury, which coal-power lobbyists love to do; it points the finger away from the pollution they dump on their neighbors.
If we want to keep Illinoisans from being poisoned, we have to clean up mercury at home. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists found that in the Chicago area, nearly two-thirds of our water’s mercury comes from Illinois sources. Coal-fired power plants emit 71 percent of mercury pollution in Illinois.
Cutting mercury emissions will yield near immediate public health benefits. The federal rule Whitley lauded is so widely recognized as insufficient that 16 states have sued to change it and a dozen are pursuing more stringent mercury reductions on their own.
Illinois EPA studies indicate that we can implement the Illinois mercury rule for less than 1 percent of utility industry revenues. Perhaps the Chamber of Commerce could view that small sum as an investment in our children. It could literally make our kids smarter.
Or to put it in terms the chamber will certainly appreciate, it will reduce the estimated $1.3 billion annual economic impact of cognitive impairments due to power plant mercury pollution.
