By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – Alabama Power and the state's environmental community are weighing in on a recent proposal by the Bush administration to allow less strict regulation of mercury emissions from coal burning power plants.
The proposed rules would require power plants to cut emissions, but gives them relaxed time restraints and more flexibility in doing so. Mobile Bay Watch say the proposal would give those plants 11 extra years to reduce emissions, and that is major problem because new clean air standards were supposed to be met in 2007.
Meanwhile, officials with Alabama Power say the technology to eliminate mercury emissions hasn't been developed yet, and that they plan to spend 4 billion over the next ten years to reduce pollution.
The proposal also creates a trading system, where power plants that can't meet emission standards could "buy" allowances from plants that exceed clean air requirements.