Just how much did EPA downplay the benefits of controlling mercury? The Wall Street Journal (subscription only) said today that internal EPA analysis found that cutting mercury pollution could produce benefits of more than $2 billion for the Southeast alone. This number stands in stark contrast to the number EPA projected publicly: $50 million in benefits for the entire nation. From WSJ: The report on Southeast benefits, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, looked at reducing mercury concentrations in marine fish and shellfish. It did not estimate the cost of achieving this reduction but said reducing national mercury emissions by 30% to 100% would produce Southeast benefits of between $600 million to more than $2 billion. This report also found a mercury "hot spot" -deposits of the toxic metal stretching across 50,000 square miles in the South Atlantic, from North Carolina to South Florida. The existence of such a large mercury concentration raises questions about public assertions by EPA officials that their new rule would prevent such hot spots. Also excluded from EPA's final analysis was a study from the Harvard Center for Risk-Analysis which found annual benefits of up to $5 billion by cutting mercury pollution from power plants by 62.5 percent.