A coalition of power companies has launched a multi-million dollar campaign to convince members of Congress to support the
Bush administration's misnamed "Clear Skies" air pollution bill. Through the Edison Electric Institute, hundreds of
companies are pushing their employees, retirees and shareholders to send faxes to Congress, meet with members of Congress,
and write to local newspapers. Even worse, these faxes falsely claim that the dirty air bill is good for the environment
and public health!
The truth is that the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" air pollution plan will weaken public health protections, leading
to more smog, soot and mercury pollution from old electric power plants than under current law.
Please take a moment to e-mail your members of Congress today and tell them that we need real solutions to the over 30,000
premature deaths and 160,000 asthma attacks that power plant pollution causes. Then, ask your family and friends to help by
forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link:
pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=9&id4=OHFreep
UPDATE
As you may have heard, the Bush administration recently signed into law the second set of regulatory changes in only six
months aimed at weakening the Clean Air Act's "New Source Review" (NSR) program. The Bush administration's newest changes
will exempt 17,000 of the oldest and most polluting power plants, refineries and other facilities from the Clean Air Act
New Source Review program.
The New Source Review provisions are a central part of the nation's clean air laws. They require the largest sources of air
pollution to install modern pollution controls when they make changes to their facilities that increase pollution. For
grandfathered sources, they are one of the few pollution control requirements under the law. While the EPA has done the
bidding of the polluters, members of Congress need to step in and stop the Bush administration's attacks on the Clean Air
Act.
BACKGROUND
The Bush administration's air pollution plan, dubbed "Clear Skies," would lead to more smog, soot and mercury contamination
than would be allowed under the current Clean Air Act. That's why the White House plan is opposed by groups like the
American Lung Association, American Heart Association, American Public Health Association and American Cancer Society.
It is unacceptable that in the year 2003 we are relying on a fleet of power plants that are using antique emission control
technologies, if any at all. The consequences include millions of avoidable asthma attacks and tens of thousands of
premature deaths each year, as well as acid rain, haze in our national parks, toxic mercury in our fish, and perhaps the
most serious threat to our future, global warming.
Unfortunately, industry is working with the Bush administration to push plans that would weaken protections already in the
current Clean Air Act. Industry wants more time to meet modern pollution standards, but they've had more than enough. Also,
their plans fail to require any mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide, the leading cause of global warming.
Current technology allows us to do better, and the urgency of the health threats posed by this pollution demands that we
address power plant pollution more seriously than industry and the Bush administration have proposed. Please take a moment
to e-mail your members of Congress today, telling them that we need real solutions to the over 30,000 premature deaths and
160,000 asthma attacks that power plant pollution causes. Then, ask your family and friends to help.
pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=9&id4=OHFreep
Sincerely,
Erin Bowser
