Debate Brews on Mercury Emissions Plan.

The proposal of altering the plan for curbing powerplant emissions of mercury by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), issued last December, has two options. An emissions-trading program in 2018 to cut mercury by 70%, or requiring "maximum achievable control technology" to trim emissions by 14 tons by 2007. The plan faces growing opposition in the U.S. Congress, from state officials and even from part of the electric power industry. EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt defended the proposal at an April 1, 2004 Senate clean air subcommittee hearing. Leavitt maintains EPA is not seeking "a rollback" of mercury controls because, to date, there has been no such rule. Whatever plan EPA adopts will mean work for the construction industry, says Bob McIlvaine, president of the McIlvaine Co.