Coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of mercury emissions in the United States, accounting for more than 90,000 pounds of airborne mercury a year--about one-third of the total output. Manufacturing plants that produce chlorine formerly used a mercury-based process that released a great deal of mercury pollution. However, a 21st-century environmental campaign has encouraged many of U.S. chlorine plants to adopt mercury-free processes, though there are still a good number of plants in Europe that use the mercury-based method.

Until 2001, factory and power plant emissions were governed by the Clean Air Act, which required plants to have the best available technology in place by 2009. The improvements were projected to lower emissions by 90 percent. The Bush administration changed course, removing the power plants from Clean Air Act jurisdiction and proposing the first regulatory effort to cut the emissions with a plan to reduce output by 70 percent within 13 years. In addition, the EPA also allows the power companies to buy pollution credits instead of reducing emission levels. In 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued an opinion in a case that was initiated by 15 states and other groups, challenging the EPA's decision to delist mercury as a hazardous air pollutant. While this--and the arrival of the Obama administration--makes it likely that a more stringent mercury standard will be adopted, EPA rulemaking takes time. . .

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