Gov. Gregoire�s statement on EPA rule proposal

For Immediate Release: March 17, 2011

OLYMPIA � Gov. Chris Gregoire today issued the following statement in response to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson�s proposal of new regulations that would require coal-burning and oil-fired power plants to reduce their emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants:

�I applaud Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson for taking this step that will save lives, decrease threats to people and the environment and reduce health-care costs across the country while maintaining affordable electricity.

�This has been a long time coming � the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 were passed by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. These amendments established requirements for the EPA to set technology-based emission standards to control the release of hazardous air pollutants from power plants. Finally, we have them.

�In Washington state, we haven�t waited. We have had science-driven rules in place for a number of years to limit toxic air pollution. It�s just one more way the Evergreen State is leading the nation in protecting its citizens and our environment, without limiting needed power supplies and our economy.

�The TransAlta facility � Washington�s only coal-fired power plant � already has the types of controls that many such facilities across the United States do not have. Thanks to agreements we�ve negotiated with TransAlta, the company is voluntarily installing state-of-the-art controls for mercury emissions. This early action by the state and the company has paved the way for TransAlta to meet the requirements of this new rule.�