It’s time for President Obama to get us across the finish line on mercury pollution. Like many New Mexicans, I’ve been closely following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to enact critical health protections to curb harmful air pollution from dirty energy sources like coal.
The problem has been clear from the beginning: Big Coal makes us sick. The pollution from burning coal causes a host of serious health problems – especially for children and senior citizens – including asthma, respiratory illness, neurological problems and heart disease. Disposing of toxic coal ash is also dangerous: Studies show that living near a toxic coal ash site is worse for your health than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
Mercury is one of the worst of the pollutants Big Coal pumps out. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, and makes its way from coal-fired power plants into the human body via contaminated fish. Mercury exposure puts babies at risk for learning disabilities, developmental disorders, and lower IQs. According to the EPA, at least 1 in 12, and as many as 1 in 6, American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their bodies to put their babies at risk.
Despite this danger, our power plants are currently allowed to spew mercury pollution without national limits. Dirty coal-fired power plants are the number one source of mercury in the U.S., emitting more than 130,000 pounds of toxic mercury pollution in 2009 alone.
All this is thanks to energy corporations like Arizona Public Service, whose Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico dumps life-threatening mercury pollution into our air on a daily basis. Among U.S. coal plants, Four Corners ranks 12th-highest in mercury pollution, and New Mexico is the 22nd-worst mercury-polluted state in the nation.
The solution is clear. Federal mercury protections like those the EPA proposed in March 2011 would reduce mercury in our air and water by over 90 percent. Clean air safeguards would prevent 17,000 premature deaths, 11,000 heart attacks, and more than 12,000 hospital and emergency room visits each year.
More than 800,000 Americans have already demonstrated their support for these mercury protections. We’re just waiting for Obama to take them across the finish line.
Perhaps the president needs more encouragement to clean up mercury. Consider the economic benefits: The new EPA protections would reduce health care costs for working families and taxpayers by preventing illnesses caused by toxic pollution. Mercury protections would also create new jobs – an estimated 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 permanent utility jobs – for workers installing and operating pollution-control equipment on power plants.
Reining in toxic mercury emissions will also speed the transition to clean energy, and this transition can help put America back to work. By replacing these dirty coal plants with investments in clean solar, wind and geothermal energy, we can create thousands of good jobs right here in New Mexico.
To get this done, we need Obama and the EPA to rein in toxic mercury pollution with strong federal protections. It’s time.
