Federal rules on mercury pollution are too lenient and need to be overturned. Members of Congress this week took an important step in scrutinizing the flawed rules. Sen. Susan Collins was the first Republican to sign on to a Joint Resolution of Disapproval and a petition to require the full Senate to review the rules. This review is critical in highlighting the Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to protect human and ecosystem health with the mercury rules it put out earlier this year.

In March, the EPA released a new rule for mercury emissions from coal-fired electric utilities even though the agency’s inspector general warned that the regulations were crafted to meet an industry-favored standard. The IG also uncovered instances where language that appears in the rule was taken directly from industry memos, without public comment as required by law. The Government Accountability Office said the Clean Air Mercury Rule was based on flawed economic analyses. Last year, 45 senators, including Sens. Collins and Olympia Snowe, asked the EPA to withdraw the proposed mercury rule in favor of the stricter regulations required by the Clean Air Act.

The proposed rule requires the nation’s 600 coal-fired power plants to cut their total mercury emissions to 15 tons by 2018, a reduction of nearly 70 percent. The Clean Air Act requires power plants to install pollution control technology that would reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2009.

Another rule from the EPA removes coal- and oil-fired utility steam generating units from the Clean Air Act requirements on mercury emissions.

“There is overwhelming and indisputable scientific evidence that the EPA’s mercury rule is flawed and should be overturned,” Sen. Collins said this week. “It does not appear that the EPA will, on its own accord, correct this flawed rule,” she added.

So Sen. Collins was the 30th, and first Republican, senator to sign a resolution aimed at overturning the rule. Sen. Snowe was the 31st senator to sign the resolution and petition. Thirty senators were needed to send the resolution directly to the Senate floor and not through the Environment and Public Works Committee, which has oversight of the EPA.

This process was used in 2001 to overturn an ergonomics rule aimed at reducing workplace injuries that was formulated during the Clinton administration.

Rep. Tom Allen is part of an effort to begin a similar review in the House, where 218 signatures are needed, a threshold that will be difficult to reach.

Even after the Senate review, the chances of overturning the mercury rules are slim. Both chambers would have to vote to overturn the rules and two-thirds majorities would be needed to overcome a possible presidential veto.

As Sen. Collins says, despite such odds, shining light on the faulty process used by the EPA and the inadequate rules that resulted is worth the effort.