With a deadline set for Thursday, April 30 for all public comments on a Bush administration proposal that wo uld weaken mercury regulations under the Clean Air Act, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will host a field hearing this Monday, April 26 at 12:30 p.m. to discuss the public health, environmental, and economic impact that this proposal would have on New Jersey. Pallone will hear testimony from state officials, health care, environmental, fish and wildlife representatives and the public.

Pallone will deliver all the comments from Monday's hearing to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington so they can be included in the EPA's final record of public comments on the proposed rule.

When the Clinton administration labeled mercury a hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act, it required coal-fired power plants to reduce mercury emissions by as much as 90 percent by the end of 2007. But now, the Bush administration, through EPA, has proposed a new rule that would delay the deadline, allowing for a 29 percent reduction by 2010 and a 69 percent reduction by 2018.