Mercury Blues...

E.P.A. Accused of a Predetermined Finding on Mercury
By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: February 4, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general charged on Thursday that the agency's senior management instructed staff members to arrive at a predetermined conclusion favoring industry when they prepared a proposed rule last year to reduce the amount of mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants.
Mercury, which can damage the neurological development of fetuses and young children, has been found in increasingly high concentrations in fish in rivers and streams in the United States.

What a shocking development. Bush's EPA is favoring industry over the health and well being of the country and it's citizens? You have got to be kidding. This is yet another example of this administration taking care of corporate donors at the expense of you and I. I'm so tired of hearing about Bush and his non-existent environ"mental" policies. I hear Bush talk tirelessly about how he's creating a "culture of life". I would like to ask the President how he can say that with a straight face when he is putting Americans health at risk every day with his ridiculous enviornmental policies. Here's some examples of what this "steward of the land" and his administration have done and are doing to the environment:

-EPA air policy penned by polluting industries
September 22, 2004: After a federal judge two years ago forced the disclosure of documents related to Vice President Cheney's secret energy task force, the records revealed that polluters all but held the pen in crafting the Bush administration's national energy policy. Even worse, it now appears that polluters actually were the authors of some of the administration's air pollution policies.

Internal Environmental Protection Agency documents obtained by environmental groups show, for the third time, that the agency's proposal for regulating mercury pollution from power plants copied passages -- almost word for word -- from a memo written by Latham & Watkins, a law firm representing the utility industry. The politically appointed head of the EPA's air program and his chief counsel were both partners at this firm before taking over at the agency. (From Natural Resource Defense Council Website)

-Bush weakens decades old rule that protects wildife in forests
September 29, 2004: Four days after President Bush proclaimed that his environmental policies have "improved habitat on public and private lands," his administration issued a rule that tries to nullify wildlife protections dating back to the Reagan administration. For the last two decades, the U.S. Forest Service has been required to manage habitats with wildlife populations in mind, particularly to ensure that "viable populations" of fish and animal species are maintained. Environmentalists regard the so-called viability rule as one of the most important wildlife safeguards available; it has been utilized on multiple occasions to stop the Forest Service from logging in areas with declining populations of owls and other wildlife. Under the administration's new approach, timber sales need only be "consistent" with often-faulty management plans and "consider" -- but not necessarily comport with -- best available science. (From Natural Resource Defense Council Website)

-Bush administration delays new air quality standards, pushes "Clear Skies"
December 10, 2004: In a bait and switch, the White House has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to delay issuing a new rule that would curtail nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide pollution, in deference to a renewed push in Congress to pass its long-stalled air pollution legislation. Critics blasted the Bush administration for shelving the Clean Air Interstate Rule in favor of a bill that would weaken the Clean Air Act by postponing smog cleanup deadlines (from 2009 to 2015) and eliminating existing cleanup requirements for smokestack pollution.

-Bush administration's environmental policies ignore science, scientists say
October 19, 2004: Forty-eight Nobel laureates have added their voices to the mounting criticism of the Bush administration's attitude towards science. In a recent letter, these scientists stated that this administration ignores unbiased scientific advice and evidence when making public policy. The scientists say that, unlike its predecessors, this administration has institutionalized control over scientific reports to ensure they are consistent with President Bush's policy initiatives. In addition to suppressing research findings to suit its political objectives, scientists charge the administration with skewing advisory panels and squelching discussion within federal research agencies. These problems have been most notable in the field of climate change. Earlier this month, three NASA scientists and several other NASA officials described how news releases on global warming studies have been delayed or revised by Bush officials "to play down definitiveness and risks."

-EPA goes soft on pollution control for oil refineries
June 25, 2004: The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general has criticized the agency for negligent enforcement of oil refineries' pollution control efforts. According to the IG's report, the EPA is poorly monitoring 42 refineries that agreed in court to decrease their toxic emissions, and has failed to set goals or strategies to ensure that refiners cut air pollution. The IG also found that 98 percent of related paperwork was delayed by an average of nine months, holding up pollution control projects.

-EPA ignores National Academy of Sciences on tap water contaminants
April 09, 2004: The Environmental Protection Agency has ignored the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences in deciding simply to ratify a list of 51 drinking water contaminants it developed in 1998 in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Three NAS reports on drinking water contaminants (two issued in 1999, and one in 2001) recommended, among other things, that the EPA use the latest gene-mapping technology to screen for a much larger list of contaminants, including waterborne pathogens, chemical agents, disinfection byproducts, radioactive substances and biological compounds. Instead, the EPA proposed in an early April 2004 Federal Register notice to postpone the use of the NAS recommendations until it issues a subsequent list of contaminants -- likely around 2009. NRDC and other health and environmental groups have strongly urged the agency to adopt new standards swiftly to protect against numerous contaminants that have been shown to be detrimental to human health.

-White House altered scientific findings on mercury threat
April 07, 2004: Hundreds of pages of internal government documents and email messages show that White House staffers played down the effects of mercury while working with Environmental Protection Agency officials to write regulations for coal-fired power plants. It appears that the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Council on Environmental Quality altered some of the EPA's language in developing the Bush administration's new mercury pollution proposals. Critics, who attacked the administration's plan as too weak, say the White House's subtle changes made the facts on mercury misleading.

Many scientists, environmentalists and politicians are outraged that the White House tweaked the scientific information to minimize the threat of mercury exposure. Examples of the changes include crossing out the word "confirmed" in the phrase "confirmed public health risk," and changing "are at an increased health risk" to "may be at an increased health risk." In several cases, the edits toned down the link between power plants and elevated levels of methylmercury in fish, despite the fact that power plan pollution is the largest unregulated source of mercury air pollution. In fact, high mercury levels prompted fish safety warnings in more than 44 states over the past year.

-EPA letting Clean Water Act violators off the hook
March 30, 2004: Under the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to take action against water polluters on a nationwide scale. According to a report by the U.S. Public Research Interest Group, nearly two-thirds of all major water treatment facilities in the United States have exceeded Clean Water Act permit limits at least once between January 1, 2002 and June 30, 2003. During the 18-month study, 436 major facilities exceeded their permit limits for at least ten months -- 35 of these plants exceeded their limits for the course of the entire study, some even going so far as to exceed their permit limits by an average of more than 600 percent. EPA enforcement actions have dwindled over the past three years -- in 2000, the EPA made 105 criminal referrals to the Justice Department, whereas 2001 and 2002 only saw 42 and 26 referrals, respectively.

-Bush cuts funding for endangered species
February 25, 2004: President Bush recently bragged about the government's new Landowner Incentive Program, which offers $26 million in grants to private landowners to protect habitat for at-risk species. But that good news is offset by the fact that his recent budget proposal slashes funding for endangered species recovery by almost $10 million -- putting it at its lowest level since the president took office. While the involvement of private landowners is useful in saving species, it is not as important as the endangered species program itself. Environmentalists have accused the Bush administration of putting the public good -- along with 1,263 threatened or endangered plants and animals -- at increased risk in an attempt to further line the pockets of a privileged few.

Keep in mind that all these are from last year only, 2004. The list is literally endless. I wish we could go back to the days when the Republican party wasn't in the back pocket of industry. We need a Republican like Teddy Roosevelt who cared deeply for enviornment and realized that to allow industry to run wild and loose was not good for America. This about sums it up:

-EPA lets power plants pollute Theodore Roosevelt National Park
February 13, 2004: As a young man, Theodore Roosevelt went to live for a time in the West in order to cure his asthma. How ironic that the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to relax estimates of air pollution over Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Last summer, EPA officials argued that the air over the park was so dirty it violated the Clean Air Act -- a situation that could lead to restrictions on future energy development in the area. Now, in a reversal that could lead to more pollution in national parks, the agency has decided to change the way it estimates air pollution over the park. Although the haze is the same, at least on paper the air will be cleaner. The deal will eliminate the need for development restrictions, allowing new coal-fired power plants to be built in the area, as planned.

In closing, this quote from Bobby Kennedy Jr. as taken from his article "Crimes Against Nature":

"George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats. The Bush attack was not entirely unexpected. George W. Bush had the grimmest environmental record of any governor during his tenure in Texas. Texas became number one in air and water pollution and in the release of toxic chemicals. In his six years in Austin, he championed a short-term pollution-based prosperity, which enriched his political contributors and corporate cronies by lowering the quality of life for everyone else. Now President Bush is set to do the same to America. After three years, his policies are already bearing fruit, diminishing standards of living for millions of Americans."

The rest of Mr. Kennedys article can be found here:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1120-01.htm