"It's time to start cleaning up,"
-EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt.

"It's time to start cleaning up," according to EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt. Addressing a recent board of directors meeting of the Edison Electric Institute, Leavitt told the nation's power company officials that their industry must begin investing now to reduce emissions of SO₂, NO_X and mercury from power plants.

Leavitt's statements came in the wake of letters sent by the EPA to the governors of 31 states affirming that more than 530 counties were unable to meet new health-based ozone standards. "Many of those counties have unhealthy air through no fault of their own," he said. "It's because they live downwind from one or more coal burning power plants."

In December 2003, the EPA proposed a suite of integrated air actions to significantly reduce current levels of power plant emissions. The Interstate Air Quality proposal would utilize a cap-and-trade program based on the EPA's Rain Program to cut emissions of SO₂ and NO₂ by approximately 70 and 65 percent respectively from today's levels. The agency's first-ever proposed rule to regulate mercury emissions would cut an estimated 48 tons of mercury emitted each year by U.S. coal-burning power plants by 70 percent.

For more on the Interstate Air Quality Rule, visit http://www.epa.gov/interstateairquality; for mercury, see: www.epa.gov/mercury.