In the battle between environmentalists and industry over toxic mercury emissions, the winner should be Pennsylvania's fish and the people who want to eat them.

The environmentalists are on the side of the fish. It works this way: Mercury is emitted from smokestacks, primarily those of coal-fired electric power generators. It falls to the earth and is washed into the state's streams. There it builds up in the bodies of fish. Because it's so poisonous, the state has issued fish consumption advisories for 77 waterways this year.

The advisories warn that eating the fish is dangerous because mercury is a neurotoxin that can lead to cerebral palsy, deafness and blindness in newborns and impede development, motor function and memory in children.

Many of the state's anglers would like to eat the fish they catch, so sportsmen's associations have joined environmental groups in urging lawmakers to support proposed state regulations that would be stricter than federal limits on mercury emissions.

Their nemesis is a coalition consisting primarily of polluters and the people who work for them. They include the Electric Power Generation Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and they are pressing lawmakers to adopt the Clean Air Mercury Compliance Act. It would permit Pennsylvania power plants to meet the lesser federal standards.

The difference between the two sets of rules is that the Department of Environmental Protection wants quicker and deeper cuts in mercury pollution -- a 90 percent cut by 2015 instead of the federal 70 percent reduction by 2018. In addition, the federal rules would allow Pennsylvania power plants to continue emitting mercury at the same rate if they bought pollution reduction credits from plants that cut discharges more than the amount required. DEP would forbid that.

DEP's rules make more sense. Pennsylvanians are subjected to the second-highest rate of mercury pollution in the nation. A poll by Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future found 80 percent want tougher limits and would be willing to pay slightly higher electric bills to cover the cost of pollution control devices.

The state will look foolish if lawmakers pass legislation allowing coal-fired plants to comply with the lower federal standards. That's because Pennsylvania has joined a dozen other states in suing to have the federal rules overturned for being too weak.

The PennFuture poll found something else that lawmakers should consider: Residents are less likely to vote for a lawmaker who opposes the DEP standards. Legislators should heed that and assure the physical health of the state's residents before granting the wishes of polluters.