LANSING – It is essential to Michigan’s environment to reduce the amount of mercury being released into it, so electric utilities, particularly DTE, should drop a challenge to new federal standards, environmental groups said in a teleconference Thursday.

But DTE executives said DTE cannot drop the lawsuit because it is only indirectly a party and is already moving ahead with work to meet the standards.

The groups, Clean Water Action, Mom’s Clean Air Force and National Wildlife Federation, said the current lawsuit against the federal rules, which they said was being led by the Utility Air Regulatory Group and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy, could prevent the new rules from taking effect for several years.

The rules have already been held up in court for six months with little movement in the case, the groups said. The case, White Stallion Energy Center LLC v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is currently in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit (Docket No. 12-1100). Attorney General Bill Schuette is also a listed party in the case. The Environmental Defense Fund, an intervening party in the case, has posted the case filings on its website.

“The National Wildlife Federation has been pushing for new mercury standards since the Clinton administration,” Brenda Archambo, Michigan outreach consultant for the group, said. “These long overdue standards are now stuck in the court. This lawsuit is a blatant disregard to what our communities want and need.”

Reducing mercury emissions should be a priority for both the state and federal governments, Rep. Jon Switalski (D-Warren) said during the event. “Doing right by the Great Lakes is not only doing right by our families, but doing right by our tourism industry as well,” he said.

Though the rules may be tied up in court, DTE is already in the process of trying to meet them, Randi Berris, spokesperson for the utility, said.

“We are operating under the assumption that they will go into effect in April 2015,” Berris said.

The utility’s Monroe plant already meets the standards and work on the Belle River and St. Clair plants is under way, she said. The River Rouge and Trenton plants are still in the planning phase, she said.

Wibke Heymach with Moms Clean Air Force said even DTE’s plan would take too long. “Every day that goes by that these rules are not in place, thousands of pounds of mercury and other toxins are spewed into our air, rivers, and lakes,” she said. “The utility companies and the special interests that represent them have already dragged their feet for too long. We can’t afford to wait another year and a half.”

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