> June 13, 2002
>
> CONTACT:
> Wendy Balazik, 202-675-2383
>
> PRESIDENT BUSH POISED TO ABANDON CLEAN AIR ACT
> Power Plants To Continue Spewing Pollution
>
> Washington, DC: Americans won't breathe any easier
> due to an announcement
> today by the Bush Administration.  The Bush
> Administration is expected to
> announce its plan to weaken the clean air protection
> known as New Source
> Review.  This announcement would cripple the Clean
> Air Act by creating new
> loopholes that allow factories, including power
> plants and oil refineries,
> to spew more asthma-causing pollution from their
> smokestacks.
>
> "These polluters have had decades to clean up their
> act, but they've just
> dragged their feet.  Now the President is trying to
> give polluters
> permission to ignore modern technology and keep
> fouling our air," said Carl
> Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club.  "Local
> communities want
> nearby power plants to clean up their acts, but the
> Bush Administration is
> turning its backs on communities breathing dirty
> air."
>
> The Bush Administration's announcement will weaken
> "New Source Review," an
> important Clean Air Act program that requires
> antiquated power plants and
> factories to install modern pollution-control
> equipment when they expand.
> Today's announcement creates loopholes, so that some
> old facilities will be
> able to increase pollution without installing modern
> pollution fighting
> technology.
>
> "In some places, air pollution is already so bad
> that kids can't play
> outside during hot summer days without getting sick.
>  But instead of
> helping kids breathe easy, President Bush is letting
> polluters off the
> hook," continued Pope.  "This announcements puts the
> interests of big
> energy companies ahead of public health and the
> environment.  Americans
> want tough enforcement of our environmental laws,
> but the Bush
> Administration is letting polluters get away
> red-handed."
>
> New Source Review has been instrumental in
> regulating refineries and power
> plants, which pump millions of tons of pollution
> into communities.  Power
> plants built between 1940 and 1970 emit four to ten
> times more pollution
> than modern plants. One example is coal-fired power
> plants that emit sulfur
> dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, and
> mercury. These pollutants have
> been found after repeated exposure to cause as much
> damage to human lungs
> as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. High smog
> levels in the eastern
> United States cause 159,000 trips to the emergency
> room, 53,000 hospital
> admissions, and six million asthma attacks each
> summer.
>
>                                    # # #
>
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT
to [log in to unmask]