The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Dear Illinois PIRG supporter,

The Bush administration is continuing to work with polluters on one of the broadest efforts to weaken our clean air protections in the history of the Clean Air Act. We expect that Congress will be making a number of crucial decisions on clean air in September and October.

One such decision is on the New Source Review program of the Clean Air Act. The Bush administration recently issued rules gutting the program, which requires power plants, refineries and other industries to install state-of-the-art pollution controls when they make major, pollution-increasing plant modifications.

The Bush administration's newly issued rules will let as many as 17,000 industrial facilities across the nation keep polluting, which would exacerbate the smog and soot pollution that sends hundreds of thousands of Americans to emergency rooms each year. Even worse, the Bush administration is trying to force every state in the nation to adopt these weaker air pollution programs, even states that prefer more stringent requirements.

In January, Sen. John Edwards (NC) introduced an amendment to block this attack on the Clean Air Act that failed by just a few votes. Sen. Edwards pledged to keep fighting, and the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote very soon on the similar Edwards-Lieberman clean air amendment, which would allow states to continue to regulate pollution under their own more protective programs.

We're expecting the vote to be close, so your senators need to know that the public supports this clean air amendment.

Please take a moment to call and ask your senators to protect the Clean Air Act. You can reach your senators at 202-224-3121 (just tell the operator which state you're from and they can connect you to your senators - you may have to call twice to reach both senators). Here's a sample message you can leave:

"Hello, my name is _____ and I live in _______. Please vote for the Edwards-Lieberman amendment to stop the Bush administration from forcing states to weaken their air pollution control programs."

Then, please take a moment to let us know you called so that we can keep track of the number of calls we generate.

To report your call, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=454&id4=ES


Today, more than 140 million Americans live in areas where ozone smog levels are high enough to cause health problems like asthma attacks. Soot cuts short the lives of 30,000 Americans annually. Other severe environmental impacts from air pollution include acid rain, mercury contamination and haze in our national parks and wilderness areas.

Incredibly, the Bush administration is taking giant steps backward on air pollution. A coalition of oil, coal and utility lobbyists have persuaded the Bush administration to weaken the Clean Air Act, including the New Source Review program that requires power plants, refineries and other industries to install state-of-the-art pollution controls when they make major, pollution-increasing plant modifications. Each year, this program has kept more than a million tons of air pollution out of our skies.

The EPA has approved a set of changes that add up to the largest regulatory weakening of our clean air protections in the 30-year history of the Clean Air Act. These rule changes dramatically weaken the New Source Review program and could allow pollution to increase from over 17,000 facilities across the nation. And other proposed changes would go even further, weakening the New Source Review program to the point of uselessness.

In taking this action, the EPA has ignored more than a dozen requests from Congress for detailed analysis of the rule changes' impact on public health and requests for public hearings to comment on the rule changes.

In January, Sen. John Edwards (NC) introduced an amendment that would have stopped the Bush administration from going forward with their plans to weaken the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program that failed by just a few votes. Sen. Edwards pledged to keep fighting, and the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote this week on the similar Edwards-Lieberman clean air amendment, which would allow states to continue to regulate pollution under their own more protective programs. This vote was scheduled to occur in July, but was delayed when Congress adjourned for their August recess.

We're expecting the vote to be close, and your senators need to know that the public supports this amendment. Please take a moment to call and ask your senators to protect the Clean Air Act. You can reach your senators at 202-224-3121 (just tell the operator which state you're from and they can connect you to your senators - you may have to call twice to reach both senators). Here's a sample message you can leave:

"Hello, my name is _____ and I live in _______. Please vote for the Edwards-Lieberman amendment to stop the Bush administration from forcing states to weaken their air pollution control programs."

Then, please take a moment to let us know you called so that we can keep track of the number of calls we generate.

To report your call, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=454&id4=ES

Sincerely,

Diane E. Brown
Illinois PIRG Executive Director
DianeB@illinoispirg.org
http://www.IllinoisPIRG.org

P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.