Latest News
From Around The Web |
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| New EPA Mercury Rule Omits Conflicting Data Study Called Stricter Limits Cost-Effective |
| The Washington Post, March 22, 2005 |
| When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff. More... |
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| Mercury Emissions To Be Traded |
| The Washington Post, March 15, 2005 |
| The Environmental Protection Agency will issue a rule today to reduce mercury emissions from power plants through a cap-and-trade system that allows some power plants to make deep pollution cuts while others make none. More... |
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| EPA Distorted Mercury Analysis, GAO Says |
| The Washington Post, March 8, 2005 |
| The Environmental Protection Agency distorted the analysis of its controversial proposal to regulate mercury pollution from power plants, making it appear that the Bush administration's market-based approach was superior to a competing scheme supported by environmentalists, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said yesterday. More... |
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| EPA cooked mercury rule, agency inspector reports |
| San Francisco Chronicle, February 5, 2005 |
| Washington -- The Environmental Protection Agency ignored scientific evidence and agency protocols to set limits on mercury pollution that would line up with the Bush administration's free-market approaches to power plant pollution, a report released Thursday by the agency's inspector general showed. More... |
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| EPA Inspector Finds Mercury Proposal Tainted |
| The Washington Post, February 4, 2005 |
| The Environmental Protection Agency ignored scientific evidence and agency protocols in order to set limits on mercury pollution that would line up with the Bush administration's free-market approaches to power plant pollution, according to a report released yesterday by the agency's inspector general. More... |
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| EPA Says White House Flunks Mercury Safety |
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| Mercury's rising threat |
| Sarasota Herald-Tribune , September 29, 2004 |
| While EPA delays action, Florida's list of contaminated waters grows President Bush and his brother Jeb undoubtedly have plenty on their schedules these days, but maybe they can squeeze in a little time for fishing during the president's next visit -- after consulting the Department of Health, of course. More... |
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| EPA Wording Found To Mirror Industry's |
| The Washington Post, September 22, 2004 |
| For the third time, environmental advocates have discovered passages in the Bush administration's proposal for regulating mercury pollution from power plants that mirror almost word for word portions of memos written by a law firm representing coal-fired power plants. More... |
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| Clean Air Ride |
| Bangor Daily News , September 21, 2004 |
| While reducing pollution from school buses is a noble, but certainly not novel, cause, there are much bigger steps the federal government can take to clean the air in Maine. So, while the schoolchildren Michael Leavitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, meets in Portland today aren't likely to complain about their cleaner buses, the state's congressional delegation would rightly like attention focused on the issues of greater environmental concern in Maine. These include mercury and other air pollutants and global climate change. More... |
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| Pollution Study says a lungful |
| Cleveland Plain Dealer , September 14, 2004 |
| Air pollution has been greatly reduced throughout the United States, but the skies still might not be clean enough to promote the best health among youngsters, says a University of Southern California study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The USC researchers discovered that heavily polluted air took an annual toll on the lung functions of healthy children enrolled in the eight-year study. The report raises a suspicion that microscopic pieces of soot might weaken children's lungs. More... |
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| The menace of mercury |
| The Anniston Star, August 31, 2004 |
| Mobile and the Alabama Gulf Coast have been singled out as a national hot spot for mercury pollution. The amount of mercury falling on the people down there is 2 to 5 times greater that what falls over most of the eastern United States. More... |
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| EPA needs tougher rules on mercury |
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| The Mercury Mess |
| Toledo Blade 8/28/2004 , August 28, 2004 |
| AFTER nearly four years of shilling for the nation's industrial polluters, the Bush Administration is suddenly hot to do something about the toxic mercury that poisons our lakes and rivers, the fish that swim in them, and the people who eat the fish. More... |
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| Mercury, fish, and Indiana |
| Fort Wayne Journal Gazette 8/27/2004 , August 27, 2004 |
| Beware of the beer-battered blue gill. Eating your fill might do more harm to you than just expanding your waistline. The Environmental Protection Agency recently released information showing that pollution of Indiana s lakes and rivers is a problem, and state leaders need to do more to encourage Indiana s industries to reduce the contamination. More... |
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| Sashimi doesn't have to be that poisonous |
| Honolulu Advertiser 8/27/2004 , August 27, 2004 |
| It wasn't that long ago that no one worried about poisonous emissions from Hawai'i's power plants and oil refineries, because 300 days out of 365, our vaunted trade winds blew them out to sea. Today we know those toxins are coming back to haunt us. Through a process called bioaccumulation, pollutants such as mercury work their way up the food chain to the fish we most like to eat the open-ocean predators like 'ahi, ono, opah, aku, mahimahi, nairagi and grouper. More... |
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| Louisville Courier-Journal 8/26/2004 , August 26, 2004 |
| Toxic contamination of lakes and rivers, primarily by mercury but also by dioxin and PCBs, is now a national commonplace. All but the remote regions of Alaska and Wyoming are so polluted that each of the other 48 states had to issue health warnings last year against eating fish caught in their waters. More... |
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| ENVIRONMENT: As mercury mounts, inaction adds to the toll |
| Detroit Free Press, August 23, 2004 |
| Mike Leavitt, chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, won't release a new federal mercury rule until next March. Meanwhile, a state task force, which Gov. Jennifer Granholm formed to recommend steps Michigan could take independently, was supposed to report last March -and still doesn't have its final language worked out. More... |
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| Feds May Stretch Out Mercury Cleanup |
| AP 3/22/04, March 22, 2004 |
| WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is leaning toward stretching out plans for reducing mercury pollution from power plants until 2018 after concluding that technology for quick cuts isn't available. Some plants would be able to buy their way out of reducing emissions. More... |
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| Limits Urged on Eating Tuna |
| Washington Post 3/20/04, March 20, 2004 |
| For the first time, the federal government has warned pregnant and nursing women and young children away from eating more than a limited amount of canned albacore "white" tuna because of potential hazards from mercury in the fish. More... |
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| EPA Exempts Plants From Clean-Air Rule |
| AP 8/27/03, August 27, 2003 |
| WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Wednesday exempted thousands of older power plants, refineries and factories from having to install costly clean air controls when they modernize with new equipment that improves efficiency but increases pollution. More... |
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| No Clear Skies |
| MotherJones 8/27/03, August 27, 2003 |
| In a Texas oil town, the assault on the nation's clean-air laws has hit close to home. More... |
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| EPA Withholds Air Pollution Analysis |
| Washington Post, 7/01/03, July 1, 2003 |
| The Environmental Protection Agency for months has withheld key findings of its analysis showing that a Senate plan to combat air pollution would be more effective in reducing harmful pollutants -- and only marginally more expensive -- than would President Bush's Clear Skies initiative for power plant emissions. More... |
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| Future Dims for 'Clear Skies' Initiative |
| Washington Post 6/29/03, June 29, 2003 |
| environmental initiatives -- to cut mercury emissions by nearly half within seven years -- is suddenly in deep trouble, the victim of administration infighting and resistance from industry leaders fearing huge costs. More... |
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| Crackdown Urged on Coal Pollution |
| Washington Post 4/22/03, April 22, 2003 |
| A congressional advisory panel yesterday called for a crackdown on pollution by aging coal-fired power plants and criticized efforts by the Bush administration to weaken clean air enforcement rules governing utilities, refineries and industrial plants. More... |
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| ENS 3/17/03, March 17, 2003 |
| WASHINGTON, DC, March 17, 2003 (ENS) - Clean air groups attacked the environmental voting records and industry ties of six Congressmen from Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas last week, legislators they believe represent a serious threat to the nation's clean air laws. More... |
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| Senate GOP Shifts on Clean Air Bill Vote |
| 1/30/03 - Washington Post, January 30, 2003 |
| Prodded by President Bush's call for action on his "Clear Skies" initiative, Senate Republican leaders changed course yesterday and vowed to vote this year on legislation to sharply reduce power plant emissions of health-threatening pollutants. More... |
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| Senate Backs Relaxation Of Clean Air Regulations |
| 1/23/03 - Washington Post, January 23, 2003 |
| President Bush's decision to relax the enforcement of industrial clean air rules survived a crucial test yesterday, as the Senate voted 50 to 46 against a Democratic call to delay the new policy for six months while scientists study its potential effects on public health. More... |
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| New Pollution Standards Prompt Suit |
| 1/1/03 - Washington Post, January 1, 2003 |
| Nine northeastern states ranging from Maine to Maryland filed suit yesterday challenging the Bush administration's decision to relax national industrial pollution restrictions for the first time since enactment of the Clean Air Act in 1970. More... |
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