Norway has a very small coal reserves, but they use them like most other countries. It's great to be concerned about elemental mercury, but when your burning a fuel with significant amounts of this element in this you have to wonder if it's a somewhat futile effort.

Also: I have to wonder what this ban will do to effect electronics that rely on mercury for their existence like mercury vapor lamps and florescent lighting?

Actually, NYCowboy, Norway has quite large coal reserves in the arctic Svalbard archipelago. But, no, unlike most other nations we do NOT use coal. Norwegian homes and industry are powered by natural hydropower and have been for a century now. In fact we export some of that power too. However being the world's third largest exporter of oil, and #2 in natural gas, we have more than our fair share of energy. Of course, that oil and gas is used in the US, UK and Germany so we can't help you reduce that pollution.

...contain mercury?  Does Norway plan to outlaw CFL's as well?  That'd be tragic, unless they replaced it with something just as good.