WashPIRG ask you to help protect the Clean Air Act

[Guest guest]

Dear WashPIRG supporter,The majority of Americans stand united behind strong protections for our environment, but the Bush administration is helping powerful interests - including power plant owners and lobbyists from Big Oil - weaken our environmental and public health protections with its misnamed "Clear Skies" initiative.The White House's "Clear Skies" plan would weaken current clean air protections, increase air pollution and worsen global warming by eliminating key provisions of the Clean Air Act and allowing more emissions of smog, soot and mercury from industries around the country than current limits in the Clean Air Act allow. For example, the White House plan would allow 420% more mercury into our nation's air than currently allowed.Please take a moment to urge your U.S. Senators and Representative to oppose the White House's "Clear Skies" initiative. Follow the link below to go to a web page where you can e-mail your senators and representative.http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=340 & id4=ESBACKGROUNDMore than thirty years ago, Congress adopted the Clean Air Act to protect public health from respiratory illnesses caused by soot, smog and toxic air pollution. Over the last 30 years, the Clean Air Act has made great strides in reducing air pollution, making the air safer to breath and less harmful to the environment. But even with these gains, every year air pollution from dirty power plants causes major environmental and public health problems across the country.* Soot and smog trigger hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks and tens of thousands of premature deaths.* Soot and smog pollution also ruin scenic vistas in our national parks and lead to acid rain.* Thousands of lakes and streams in 44 states have been posted with warnings not to eat the fish because of mercury contamination. Consumption of these fish can cause neurological problems. Coal burning power plants are responsible for 32% of human-caused mercury in the environment.* Global warming causing carbon dioxide pollution is leading to a rise in average global temperatures. If this continues, scientists predict more violent weather, the northward spread of tropical diseases such as malaria, rising sea levels and widespread disruption of ecosystems. Electric power plants are responsible for 36% of the nation's total carbon dioxide emissions.Incredibly, the Bush administration's misnamed "Clear Skies" initiative would weaken public health and environmental protections while severely undermining enforcement of the Clean Air Act.Perhaps the most egregious example of this weakening is provided by the Bush administration's plan to deal with mercury pollution. Power plants are the largest uncontrolled source of mercury, a neurological toxin which threatens the health of developing fetuses, children and other vulnerable populations. According to a presentation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the Edison Electric Institute, an industry lobby group, the Clean Air Act as it exists now will only allow 5 tons of mercury emissions from power plants by 2008, down from approximately 52 tons per year emitted currently. The Bush administration's plan allows 26 tons of mercury to be emitted in 2010 and only requires a final reduction to 15 tons in 2018 - allowing 3 times more mercury emissions with a delay of up to 10 years.Similarly, the "Clear Skies" plan allows more smog and soot forming pollution than the current Clean Air Act will allow. The plan also eliminates many of the enforcement mechanisms that states have to reduce air pollution from power plants and other major industrial facilities.The "Clear Skies" plan also worsens global warming caused by carbon dioxide pollution by failing to require any mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide, even though power plants are the largest source of U.S. global warming pollution, responsible for 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.Please take a moment to urge your senators and representative to oppose the White House's "Clear Skies" initiative. Follow the link below to go to a web page where you can e-mail your senators and representative.http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=340 & id4=ESSincerely, Robert PregulmanWashPIRG Executive DirectorRobertPregulmanhttp://www.WashPIRG.orgP.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.----------If you want to change your e-mail address or are getting e-mail at multiple e-mail addresses then follow this link - http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=9434 & id6=change - to a web page where you can change your e-mail address.If you want us to stop sending you e-mail then follow this link - http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=9434 & id6=remove - to a web page where you can remove yourself.