Clean Air Action Alert!
Senate To Vote to Block EPA's New Source Review Rollback
Within the next few days, Senator Edwards will offer an amendment to the
2003 omnibus appropriations bill that will stop EPA from using FY 03
funds appropriated by Congress to implement any of the final weakening
changes made to the NSR program last month. The amendment will also
require a National Academy of Sciences study on the health impacts of
the final NSR rollback rules signed by EPA on December 31.
This vote is the most significant action on clean air that has been
considered on the floor of the Senate in years. We need to get a flood
of calls into key Senate offices NOW. Below is a brief backgrounder on
the issue, and a short phone rap to use in calling Senate offices.
Senator Harkin has been good on issues like this in the past, and we
need to instill resolve in him to address these attempts to roll back
clean air AND water programs that protect the health and well-being of
everyone in Iowa.
Please call today!
Background:
Today, more than 140 million Americans live in areas where ozone smog
levels are high enough to cause health problems such as asthma attacks
and declining lung function. Moreover, fine particle pollution known as
"soot" cuts short the lives of 30,000 Americans annually. This is to
say nothing of the severe environmental impacts of air pollution,
including acid rain, mercury contamination and haze in our national
parks and wilderness areas.
Unfortunately, the Bush Administration is taking giant steps backward on
air pollution. A coalition of oil, coal and utility lobbyists have waged
a campaign to persuade the Bush Administration to weaken the rules of
the Clean Air Act, especially 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.
EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman just signed a set of regulatory
changes that add up to the largest regulatory weakening of clean air
protections in the 30-year history of the Clean Air Act. These rule
changes dramatically weaken the NSR program, and could allow pollution
increases from upwards of 17,000 facilities across the nation. On the
same day, she issued a proposal that would go even further, weakening
the NSR program to the point of uselessness.
EPA took this action despite widespread opposition among the public,
more than one thousand medical doctors, forty-four U.S. Senators, and
more than one hundred members of Congress. Moreover, EPA ignored more
than a dozen requests from Congress for detailed analysis of the rule
changes' impact on public health, and requests for public hearings and
opportunity to comment on the rule changes.
Phone rap:
As I'm sure you know, the Bush Administration has issued rules that
would weaken requirements that aging power plants and oil refineries
reduce their air pollution if they expand. One study found that
pollution from these sources cause thousands of premature deaths and
tens of thousands of asthma attacks annually.
Fortunately, Senator John Edwards, (D-NC) is expected to offer an
amendment to block these weaker rules that would allow more air
pollution until the health and environmental impacts of these new rules
are studied. The amendment would be attached to the 2003 omnibus
spending bill, which could be considered any day now.
Can we count on your support for this amendment on the floor?
==================================================
Eric Uram
Midwest Regional Representative
Sierra Club
214 North Henry Street
Suite 203
Madison, WI 53703-2200
608-257-4994 office
608-347-8008 cell
608-257-3513 fax
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