We talk a lot about carbon emissions here at TakePart, mostly, I’d think, because they’re the main focus of a lot of efforts to curb climate change. However, carbon isn’t the only dangerous pollutant that gets pumped into the environment, and luckily, the good people at the Environmental Protection Agency haven’t forgotten that, and are all over other sources. Such as, say, mercury being emitted from oil- and coal-fired power plants.

What I’m getting at here is that the EPA has committed to setting standards by 2011 that will dramatically reduce the amount of mercury said power plants can emit into the atmosphere. The Los Angeles Times reports that these standards will most likely force plants to install devices called scrubbers that capture heavy metals before being emitted. This result of this is higher energy prices, yes, but also “could potentially save thousands of lives.”

Environmentalists hailed the decision and equated it, in environmental protection terms, with EPA moves this year to begin limiting greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, factories, power plants and other major emitters.Environmentalists hailed the decision and equated it, in environmental protection terms, with EPA moves this year to begin limiting greenhouse gas emissions “This is the Holy Grail for pollution control,” said Jim Pew, an attorney at Earthjustice, one of the groups that brought the suit.

The Holy Grail. Bold talk there Earthjustice. Except that, really, it might not be an exaggeration, according to this next Times (still LA) quote:

According to a 2004 study by a group of Northeast air quality agencies, the new rules could result in a 90% reduction in mercury emissions. “This power-plant rule could reduce sulfur dioxide levels by 80% to 90%,” said John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, another party to the suit. The scrubbers are “not cheap, but you see the health benefits.”

The power industry, needless to say, isn’t thrilled, and had actually been trying to avoid this ruling for a while. But, hey, I’m pretty okay with them passing the price on to consumers for what seem to be pretty substantial health benefits.

photo credit: Seth Tisue’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons