EPA’s war against coal a disservice

Mike Tennis is probably correct in his Jan. 7 letter, “EPA all but ensures brownouts.”

Unfortunately, the EPA has been misleading people about the dangers of mercury.

First, it’s highly unlikely that mercury from coal-fired power plants causes harm. The gold standard in mercury health research is a University of Rochester study that tracked a group of Seychelles Island children from birth to 9 years old where researches found no adverse effects. Their mothers ate 10 times as much fish containing six times more mercury as did mothers in the U.S.

Second, mercury emissions by coal-fired power plants of 41 million tons per year are small when compared with global emissions of 9,100 tons per year, where at least half come from natural sources — not anthropogenic sources.

Third, a recent USGS study of ice-core samples found that the highest level of mercury ever deposited in Wyoming was 23 ppt, which compares with the safe limit established by OSHA of 78,000 ppt. In other words, the OSHA safe limit was 3,300 times higher than the amount of mercury found by the USGS in its study.

Since mercury emissions are deposited worldwide, the Wyoming study is a surrogate for the entire U.S. (The USGS study, for example, showed how mercury from volcanoes in the Far East impacted the U.S.)

The EPA, in its war against coal, has been doing a disservice to America — especially now that its actions could possibly cause a shortage of electricity.

I cover energy issues at Power For USA. See www.powerforusa.com

Donn Dears

Geneva