It’s been a good week for people concerned about the environment. For now, President Bush’s misnamed Clear Skies legislation has been bottled up. And, on Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency released new regulations that begin to live up to the mandates of the Clean Air Act by placing limits on smog and soot pollution.

Now, we can only hope that concern for the environment can carry the day next week when the EPA is expected to release new rules for mercury emissions.

One activist told the Sun Journal that environmentalists are “holding their breath” on the mercury rules. If the news goes as expected and the EPA creates significant loopholes to allow polluters to continue to pump mercury into the atmosphere, we might all be advised to join them.

In January 2004, the EPA proposed new rules for regulating mercury emissions, including a cap-and-trade system that does not set hard limits on emissions. Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of airborne mercury in the United States, and utility companies have pushed for the new EPA rules, which would make it easier and less costly for them to meet mercury emissions standards. The EPA’s own inspector general faulted the process as political and unscientific.

A letter to the EPA from Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and 31 other senators puts it succinctly: “The EPA’s current proposal on mercury falls far short of what the law requires and fails to protect the health of our children and our environment. I am calling on the Administration to withdraw their current mercury proposal and issue a new rule that would reduce mercury emissions in the shortest time possible to protect public health and the environment.”

We echo that call.

Mercury is a known poison. It can travel great distances once it’s in the air, and it collects in dangerous hotspots, including four in Maine.

A report released Tuesday by the Gorham-based BioDiversity Research Institute says that the pollution is worse than previously believed and is showing up in forest animals as well as in fish, lakes and rivers. Maine already has to warn people against eating too much fish because of the danger mercury poses to pregnant women and young children. Now the contamination is spreading to other parts of the ecosystem.

The health and welfare of millions of people are at stake. The administration should act aggressively to cut the amount of this dangerous toxin that’s released into our environment.

This week’s good news will be forgotten if the EPA fails in its responsibilities next week. The country needs to aggressively attack mercury pollution, not find ways to coddle polluters.