From ILPIRG on efforts to reduce atmospheric mercury pollution:
Dear Illinois PIRG supporter,
I'm happy to let you know that over 20,000 people have sent in their comments to the EPA from our clean air web site - http://www.CleanAirNow.org - urging the EPA to protect mothers and children from mercury poisoning by cutting mercury emissions from power plants by 90 percent by 2008. The EPA's proposal sets targets so weak that the energy industry will be allowed to continue polluting without using state of the art mercury controls. Across the country, more than 500,000 people have participated in the EPA's public comment period on its weak proposal to reduce the danger posed by mercury from power plants. Thank you all.
We won a victory at the end of April when the EPA extended the public comment period by sixty days until June 29. This was largely due to our request that the EPA give the public - and not simply polluters - more of an opportunity to get involved.
Now we want to make sure that the Bush administration hears from both Congress and the public. Right now, U.S. Representatives Thomas Allen (ME) and Jim Cooper (TN) are asking other members of the U.S. House of Representatives to voice their constituents' concerns about the Bush administration's mercury plan by signing a mercury letter they have written. This mercury letter will then be delivered to the Bush administration.
I am asking everyone to call and ask their U.S. Representative to sign on to the Cooper-Allen mercury letter. You can call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Representative. Here's a sample message you can leave:
"Hello, my name is _____ and I live in _______. Please ask the EPA to reduce the danger posed by mercury from power plants by signing on to the Cooper-Allen mercury letter."
After you call, let us know so that we can keep track of how many calls your representative is getting. This is a crucial part of our work! Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To report your call, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=12&id4=ES
Background
Mercury is a dangerous toxic metal that can cause severe neurological and developmental problems in fetuses and very young children whose brains are still developing. People are exposed to mercury mainly by eating fish. The EPA and forty-three states have now issued advisories warning people, especially women and children, to avoid or limit eating local fish because of mercury. But even with these warnings, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention and the EPA estimate that 1 out of 6 U.S. women of childbearing age have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood due to fish consumption.
The best way to protect women and children from mercury is to eliminate it from its largest source: power plants. Smokestacks spew mercury pollution into the air, where it rains and snows down into our waterways, accumulating in fish and making them unsafe to eat. Amazingly, power plants have yet to be regulated for mercury pollution under federal clean air standards. Two years ago, the EPA's own scientists said current technologies could achieve a 90 percent reduction of mercury from power plants, but the electric and coal industries are pressing hard to avoid limiting their mercury emissions.
After years of work by us and other public health advocates, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now under a deadline to reduce the dangers of mercury from power plants.
Last December, the EPA's initial weak proposal to reduce the danger posed by mercury from power plants was released. Amazingly, they are, in effect, proposing to treat power plant mercury emissions as non-toxic air pollution, despite long-standing, clear evidence of mercury's effects as a developmental toxin. This will allow them to avoid requiring power plants to use the maximum achievable control technologies to reduce emissions, as stipulated by the Clean Air Act.
But the Bush administration is feeling the immense public outcry about its inadequate proposal for addressing power plant emissions of mercury. In March, EPA Administrator Leavitt made an announcement that the administration would begin studying options for strengthening the rule and extended the mercury proposal comment period. Administrator Leavitt's statement cited recent EPA studies showing that loopholes in the EPA's proposal would prevent the rule from meeting its weak goals, which would allow 6-7 times more pollution than properly enforcing the Clean Air Act. Then, at the end of April, the EPA extended the comment period again until June 29.
Since we've been given an extended time period, we want to make sure that the Bush administration hears from both Congress and the public. Right now, Representatives Thomas Allen (ME) and Jim Cooper (TN) are circulating a letter asking other members of the U.S. House of Representatives to voice their constituents' concerns about the Bush administration's mercury plan by signing this letter. This mercury letter will then be delivered to the Bush administration.
I am asking everyone to call and ask their U.S. Representative to sign on to the Cooper-Allen mercury letter. You can call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Representative. Here's a sample message you can leave:
"Hello, my name is _____ and I live in _______. Please ask the EPA to reduce the danger posed by mercury from power plants by signing on to the Cooper-Allen mercury letter."
After you call, let us know so that we can keep track of how many calls your representative is getting. This is a crucial part of our work! Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To report your call, click on this link or paste it into your web browser:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=12&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.
A personal quest to promote the use of wind energy and hydrogen technology in the Great Lakes area of the United States. The Great Lakes area is in a unique position to become an energy exporting region through these and other renewable energy technologies. *Update 2014: Just do it everywhere - Dan*
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