WASHINGTON -- March 29 -- Several state Attorneys General acted today to defend public health and enforce the law by formally challenging to the Bush administration's rule on mercury emissions from power plants. Today the Federal Register published that rule, which allows three times more mercury pollution from America's dirtiest power plants than strong enforcement of our current clean air laws and delays cleanup for more than a decade.

In response to these events, the Sierra Club issued the following statement:

"The Sierra Club applauds the nine state Attorneys General who filed lawsuits today against the EPA for taking steps to do something the Bush administration is not -- protecting children and babies in the womb from harmful exposure to mercury. They are right to object to a rule that allows three times more mercury pollution than strong enforcement of our current clean air laws and delays cleanup for more than a decade. We hope that other Attorneys General will join their voices to this fight for public health.

"The impact of the EPA's mercury rule will be felt by all of us, but most importantly it will jeopardize the health of hundreds of thousands of newborns in the U.S. each year."

The following Attorneys General filed lawsuits today against the EPA:

New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
Maine Attorney General G. Steven Rowe
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly
New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte
New Mexico Attorney General Patricia A. Madrid
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
Vermont Attorney General William H. Sorrell

###