The Bush Administration, following its "industry-over-individual" (aka "pro-business") approach playbook, created the rules following heavy lobbying from utility concerns.

"The rule wasn't even written by the EPA — it was written on K Street," Jeffords said last year, referring to the Washington street lined with lobbyist offices. "The Bush Administration has lost sight of its obligation to protect public health and safeguard the natural environment."

In public sessions last year New York State environmental chief Peter Lehner said the proposed rules are "far too lax" and take effect too late to protect public health. Lehner also said the rules were "fundamentally flawed" for ignoring the fact that coal-fired plants are the nation's largest producers of CO2. The Bush administration and the power industry's lobbying organizations have opposed mandates to cut CO2 emissions.

"The proposed emission standards do not appear to be based on sound science or technology — but rather on politics -- a vehicle to enable the administration to claim that it is reducing emissions without requiring the power companies to depart from 'business as usual,'" said Lehner.

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Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that causes mental retardation, developmental deficiencies and motor impairment in children. One-in-six women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their bodies to damage the children they may conceive. Mercury has also been found to cause in increase in the rate of heart attacks in adult men.

Mercury enters the food chain when smokestack mercury is deposited in rivers, streams and coastal waters, and accumulates in the seafood we eat.

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What now?

Environmentalists are hoping for a victory via the courts.

"Once again, the courts will be the last line of defense against an illegal rule that would leave many thousands of Americans unprotected against toxic pollution," said Jim Cox, Legislative Counsel for environmental group Earthjustice.

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This article first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.