NEWLY POSTED BUSH ATROCITIES ARTICLE 6
HEALTH
'Betraying the Public Trust'
The Bush administration is planning to finally unveil its mercury emissions policy today. These new, polluter-friendly rules were politically driven, based on phony science and drafted in part by the polluters themselves. They will curb toxic mercury pollution at a much slower rate than other more environmentally favorable plans while instituting a cap-and-trade system, which lets dirty power plants buy credits from cleaner ones. Thus, under the new system, some power plants will actually "increase pollution, while others turn a profit selling unused pollution allowances." The result: "hot spots," localized areas of serious contamination. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today sums up the true effect of the new White House rules, writing, "There's no gentle way to put it: The White House is ignoring the public's will, betraying the public's trust and endangering the public's health by proposing weak mercury regulations for the nation's power plants."
POLLUTED NUMBERS: Every year, power plants emit 48 tons of toxic mercury into the atmosphere. President Bush likes to claim his plan will reduce mercury pollution by 70 percent by 2018. What he doesn't tell the public: that's a big step backwards. The Bush administration rolled back a 2000 Clinton White House plan which "would have mandated curtailing emissions at every plant by the maximum amount possible, which proponents said could bring a 90% reduction in three years using existing technology." In fact, a preliminary report released by the nonpartisan National Academy of Sciences found that "the Bush administration's bill to curb air pollution from power plans would reduce air pollution less than the current Clean Air act rules."
PLAYING GAMES WITH SCIENCE: The EPA's own inspector general and the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) have sharply criticized the EPA for bypassing scientific ethics and willfully distorting analysis while creating the mercury emission rules. Last month, the EPA inspector general reported the White House had pushed EPA scientists to ignore scientific evidence and instead "find" predetermined conclusions the Bush administration needed to justify the polluter-friendly cap-and-trade plan. Last week, the GAO also slammed the EPA for twisting analysis to falsely make Bush's plan seem superior to other plans which would actually clean the air faster and better. Both the EPA's inspector general and the GAO demanded the EPA conduct additional – and real – analyses of the mercury rules before issuing the new rule. EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman yesterday, however, confirmed that hasn't happened.
LETTING INDUSTRY WRITE THEIR RULES: The EPA's mercury emission rules are so industry friendly that they were even partially drafted by the very energy companies they're supposed to regulate. In April 2003, a group of eight power plants reviewed the administration's plan and submitted a "wish list" of changes to weaken regulations. The Washington Post last year found that, in a side-by-side comparison of the rules and the power-plant memo, at least "a dozen paragraphs were lifted, sometimes verbatim, from the industry suggestions."
FORGETTING THE CHILDREN: Mercury is a powerful toxin that can have serious neurological effects, especially in kids. Mercury directly harms the nervous systems of infants and children, causing birth defects and serious learning disabilities. According to an EPA analysis, 600,000 babies born in the U.S. every year "may be exposed to dangerous levels of mercury in the womb." The Los Angeles Times points out that even the EPA's very own Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee reported last year that the industry-friendly EPA mercury rule "does not sufficiently protect our nation's children." A member of that panel yesterday criticized the new rules, saying, "This rule flies in the face of the best science, and the best experts and the public." She also revealed the committee "repeatedly had asked the EPA to do additional analysis on the rule and to address 'hot spots,' but the agency had failed to do either."
THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE: Power plants burn coal, which releases mercury pollution into the air. From there, it rises in the atmosphere and returns in the form of polluted rain, which accumulates in lakes, bays, ponds and rivers. Scientists have long known the poisonous effects mercury pollution has on fish (and, thus, people who eat fish.) In fact, 45 states currently have do-not-eat warnings for certain fish that have been contaminated with mercury. But the environmental effect is even more widespread than previously thought. A study last week unexpectedly found toxic levels of mercury in birds living on mountaintops in Vermont . Biologist Kent McFarland called the surprising new finding a "wake-up call" about how much mercury is pervading the atmosphere. (For more, check out this editorial by John Podesta and John Monks.)