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Washington — A Central New York congressman, seeing an opportunity
that may never come again, has introduced a bill requiring the most
drastic cuts in U.S. history to the pollution responsible for acid rain.

Rep. John McHugh
said he wants to tie his “Acid Rain and Mercury Control Act” into a
landmark energy and climate change bill that Congress will begin
considering this week, with the goal of a vote by June.

The climate legislation to control greenhouse gases received a boost last week when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled that global warming is a danger to public health and welfare.

The EPA’s action sets the stage for the federal
government to regulate carbon dioxide pollution and five other
greenhouse gases linked to climate change.

But the EPA, and the separate global warming bill making its way
through Congress, do not address all of the pollution from coal-fired
power plants. The pollution contributes to acid rain, which has
devastated lakes and forests in New York for decades. Among the
pollutants that McHugh wants to target is mercury, which also poses a
risk to human health.

McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, who proposed a similar bill to tackle
acid rain in 2007, said he believes now is the best chance to finally
solve the problem with federal legislation.

“One of the primary motivators for reintroducing the bill at this
time is because of the debate surrounding climate change,” McHugh said.
“I didn’t want acid rain to be left out.”

He added, “The carbon debate has taken center stage. My deepest
concern is that if something is passed and signed into law without an
acid rain component, it may be a long time before we have a chance to
focus on that issue again.”

The acid rain problem has taken on added urgency after a recent
study found a dangerous link with global warming. The study found
increased leaching of harmful nitric acid from warming soils in the
Appalachians.

McHugh, whose 11-county district stretches from Madison and Oswego
counties into the Adirondacks, has already picked up bipartisan support
from his Central New York colleagues in the House delegation. Both
Reps. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, and Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, have signed on
as co-sponsors of the McHugh bill.

New York’s two U.S. senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten
Gillibrand, both Democrats, say they will sponsor separate legislation
in the Senate, similar to McHugh’s bill.

McHugh’s legislation would require coal-fired power plans to make
some of the most ambitious pollution cutbacks ever mandated by the
federal government.

The bill focuses on three pollutants that contribute to acid rain —
mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide — destroying forests,
killing fish and poisoning water.

New York’s Adirondack and Catskill mountains are particularly hard
hit because their soils are more sensitive to acid rain than any other
place in the nation.

Studies have shown that about 40 percent of Adirondack lakes are
either always or sometimes acidic. Up to 25 percent of the lakes
surveyed have been declared essentially dead, supporting no fish life.

To address the problem, the McHugh bill would:

• Require power plants to make a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions from current levels by 2013.

• Require a 75 percent cut in sulfur and nitrogen emissions from 1997 levels by 2012.

• Authorize $13.6 million per year through fiscal year 2018 to implement the requirements of the legislation.

• Allow power plant owners to use market-oriented mechanisms to comply
with the new standards, such as trading in pollution credits.

• Prohibit any trading of mercury pollution credits, placing an
unmovable limit on mercury emissions from individual power plants.

McHugh said the reason for the strict mercury controls is the fact that
the toxic chemical has been linked to neurological and kidney
disorders, particularly in the development of fetuses.

The congressman’s proposal received immediate praise from New York
state environmental groups and independent scientists who study acid
rain.

“I think this is as aggressive a proposal as I have ever seen,” said
Syracuse University professor Charles Driscoll, one of the nation’s
leading acid rain scientists.

Driscoll said the timing of the proposed federal legislation on both
climate change and acid rain is important because recent studies show
that under higher temperatures soils are less able to retain nitrogen,
which leaches into water as nitric acid.

“I think there is some urgency,” Driscoll said. “It looks like there are some interactions to climate and acid rain.

The Adirondack Council,
the largest advocacy group for the 6 million-acre Adirondack Park,
agrees with McHugh that momentum could be strong enough in Congress to
finally pass acid rain legislation.

John Sheehan, speaking for the Adirondack Council, said the
prospects changed when President Obama took office and expressed his
commitment to climate change legislation.

“I think our chances for an acid rain bill are better than they were
last year, and they continue to improve with leadership from the White
House,” Sheehan said. “Ultimately, our chances have not been this good
in a decade. We literally could not get the Clinton-Gore administration
to say the words ‘acid rain.’ They did not want to deal with the issue.”

The administration of former President George W. Bush attempted to regulate smokestack pollution with its Clean Air Interstate Rule,
affecting 28 states. A federal appeals court struck down those rules
last year, saying the Bush administration overstepped its authority in
trying to curb the pollutants that cause smog, soot and acid rain. The
pollution travels from Midwestern power plants and damages Northeastern
forests and lakes.

The court defeat left coal-fired power plants as the largest source
of mercury emissions in the United States that are unregulated on the
federal level.

McHugh said he knows his new bill may not pass as standalone
legislation. But he said he remains hopeful that the climate change
bill sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Edward Markey,
D-Mass., will include all or part of his acid rain legislation.

“I am most interested in ensuring that, however these issues go
forward, that acid rain is part of the discussion,” McHugh said. “The
bill is intended as a reference tool, so if somebody asks what we
should be doing, we have a bill that has already been printed up and is
ready to go.”