Required Reading

Heinzerling and Steinzor. 2004. A perfect storm: Mercury and the Bush administration. 34 ELR 10297. Read only the subsection entitled "Coddling the old dirties," at the very end.

Heinzerling and Steinzor. 2004. A perfect storm: Mercury and the Bush administration. 34 ELR 10485. Read only up to but not including "Lost opportunities."

Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993. Excerpts.

Questions for class discussion

1. How did EPA effectively avoid regulating old chlor-alkali plants? Be specfic in explaining exactly how EPA applied Section 112 of the Clean Air Act to these facilities in an ineffective way.

2. What are the major critiques of the EPA's mercury cost/benefit analysis, as identified by Heinzerling and Steinzor?

3. Conversely, suppose an environmental group were interested in biasing a cost/benefit analysis toward their interests. What assumptions of the mercury cost/benefit analysis are most susceptible to being manipulated by them towards their ends?

4. Explain the institutional structures that govern how economic considerations should be considered in regulating mercury. Explain both the role of statutory language in Section 112 of the Clean Air Act, Executive Order 12866, and the role of OIRA.