New Hampshire is mandating a cut in mercury emissions at its power plant -- 80 percent by 2013. Any reduction beyond 80 percent can be used to bank against future SO2 emissions (acid rain, smog). The greenies are mad:
[Doug] Bogen [of Clean Water Action] said this is the first state in the country to allow credits from one pollutant to be traded for reductions of another.
“Certainly this is a bad precedent. We are giving them back the credits we took away from them four years ago,” Bogen said.
I don't really blame them this time. I've never heard of banking one pollutant for another. But then, I don't know everything.
Could it be that mercury stays in-state and SO2 bothers Maine but not New Hampshire? Just wondering. Live free or die!
