Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn Side with Polluters Over Texans’ Health, But Senate Rejects Rollback of Mercury Standards

Environment Texas

Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn Side with Polluters Over Texans’ Health,
But Senate Rejects Rollback of Mercury Standards

AUSTIN, TX – In a victory for Texans’ health and environment, the U.S. Senate today rejected a bill which would have allowed power plants to continue spewing toxic mercury pollution into our air.  The bill, S.J. Res. 37 introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), would have put more than 1,000 Texan lives at risk every year. But despite the clear public health and environmental threats posed to Texans by mercury pollution, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn voted in favor of this dangerous proposal.

“Today, Senators Hutchison and Cornyn sided with the polluters instead of standing up for Texans’ health and our environment,” said Luke Metzger, Director for Environment Texas.

The legislation that was defeated sought to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently finalized Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, which requires power plants to reduce their mercury pollution by 90 percent—the first-ever nationwide standard for mercury pollution from power plants, despite power plants being the largest single source of mercury pollution.

In 2010 Texas power plants emitted 11,127 pounds of toxic mercury into our air. This mercury pollution threatens our air, water and health; in fact, just one gram of mercury is enough to make the fish in a 25-acre lake unsafe to eat. 300,000 acres of Texas lakes currently have an advisory for mercury pollution, warning citizens not to eat certain species of fish from the waterways.