Mercury rule will help clear air

One step at a time, President Barack Obama is writing a credible record on preserving our environment and public health. The latest move came last week, when his Environmental Protection Agency made final a new rule to sharply reduce power-plant emissions of mercury and other toxins.

In 1990, Congress amended the Clean Air Act and directed the EPA to control toxins such as mercury. Since then, coal-fired power plants have continued spewing mercury and other pollutants covered by the rule, such as arsenic and cyanide. Mercury is a neurotoxin that gets into our surface waters, the fish we eat and our bodies. It's especially dangerous for the developing brains of children and for pregnant women.

Now, finally, the EPA is directing plant operators to install already available emissions-control technology. (Happily, New York plants have already done a lot of that work.) The agency estimates that the new rule will avert 11,000 deaths a year. The projected avoided cost of health care -- for ailments such as asthma, developmental disorders and others -- vastly outweighs the compliance costs.

Earlier this year, Obama did the right thing on fuel efficiency standards and interstate air pollution. But he put off until 2013 tightening the standard on smog-producing ground ozone. That was to fend off Republican charges that regulation kills jobs. As to the mercury rule, the EPA says compliance will create 46,000 construction jobs and 8,000 utility jobs.

In taking this step, Obama is simply obeying Congress -- the enlightened one that passed the 1990 amendments, not the current House, which wakes up every day trying to hog-tie the EPA.