On March 15, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule allowing power plants to continue emitting dangerous levels of mercury well into the future.

The Clean Air Act required power plants to reduce their emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin, by about 90 percent by 2008. But EPA’s new rule establishes a “cap-and-trade” program under which power plants will be able to avoid meaningful reductions until after 2025.

Power plants—the last unregulated industrial source of mercury—are the largest source of U.S. mercury pollution, releasing 48 tons of mercury into the air every year. Georgia ranks eleventh in the nation for power plant emissions of mercury. In 2003, more than 41,000 acres of lakes and 2,500 miles of rivers statewide were covered by mercury-related fish consumption advisories.

“Given the choice between protecting the health of our children and protecting big polluters, the Bush administration has chosen the polluters,” said Megan Fitzgerald, clean water associate for Georgia PIRG.