The link to mercury and developmental disabilities has already been proven
--- this includes ADD, PDD, autism,apraxia
-----------------
Forwarded Message:
Subj:FW: Senate Dems set to probe Bush admin's mercury proposal
Date:7/7/2004 4:54:32 PM Eastern Standard Time
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Thanks to Sandy Cort, HCP Maine.


Kathy Lawson, Coordinator
Healthy Children Project
Healthy Planet - Healthy Minds - Healthy Future

Learning Disabilities Association of America
4156 Library Road, Suite 1
Pittsburgh, PA 15234-1349

Telephone: 412.341.1515 Ext 208 Fax: 412.344.0224
klawson@...

"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get
better. It's not." The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Cort [mailto:SJCort@...]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 4:49 PM
To: Kathy Lawson; Elise Miller; Ann Vinup; Connie Parr; Jane Browning; Jean
Lokerson; 'Joan Hofmann'; Ken Warlick; matoombs@...; 'Myrna Mandlawitz';
'S. Britt'; 'Sandra Britt'; sfornaro@...; Audrey McMahon; 'Barbara
McElgunn'; Ken Bonnet; Kevin Crofton; Lynne Cannon
Subject: FW: Senate Dems set to probe Bush admin's mercury proposal

FYI
Sorry for cross postings but wanted to share this info.
Sandy Cort
LDAA
LDAME




From: Matt Prindiville [mailto:mprindiville@...]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 10:25 AM
6 AIR POLLUTION PRINT THIS STORY

Senate Dems set to probe Bush admin's mercury proposal
Darren Samuelsohn, Environment & Energy Daily senior reporter
The Senate Democratic Policy Committee plans Friday to examine the Bush
administration's regulatory proposal to reduce power plant mercury emissions at
an
unofficial Capitol Hill hearing likely to further drive a partisan wedge into
the controversial air pollution debate.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Jim Jeffords
(I-Vt.), Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and
Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) are the primary hosts
for
the hearing. A party spokesman said the session is designed to highlight
discrepancies between the advice of some U.S. EPA officials on the mercury issue
and the direction taken by the Bush administration in the proposed rule it
released last December.
The Democrats' hearing is also aimed at linking mercury emissions and health
risks for vulnerable population groups, including pregnant women and children.
In the Senate minority since the start of the 108th Congress in January 2003,
Democrats do not have authority to call a hearing through a formal committee
-- party members need to get the approval of Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) to consider any environmental
issue. A Senate Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) spokesman said Inhofe was
asked
to hold a mercury hearing but declined.
An Inhofe spokesman yesterday said he was not aware of any DPC hearing
requests, adding that the EPW panel has no plans to hold any upcoming hearings
on
the mercury issue.
All witnesses on the DPC hearing agenda are expected to provide testimony
favorable to the Senate Democrats' perspective. The list includes Brad Campbell,
a former White House official during the Clinton administration and now the
head of New Jersey's Commission of Environmental Protection. The DPC spokesman
said the party opted not to invite witnesses from the Bush administration.
Senate Democrats have made the air pollution issue one of their primary
targets for criticism of the president. Earlier this year, the DPC held its
first
environmental-specific session of the 108th Congress, gathering testimony from
two former top EPA enforcement officials who were highly skeptical of the
administration's overhaul of the Clean Air Act New Source Review program and the
effects that overhaul would have on a series of legal challenges brought
against the electric utility industry during the Clinton administration (E&E
Daily,
Feb. 9).
EPA is required under a consent decree with environmental groups to finish a
mercury rule by March 2005, just into the start of the next presidential
administration. EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt has said the Bush administration
would prefer finalizing a cap-and-trade system limiting annual emissions to 34
tons by 2010 and 15 tons by 2018. Leavitt has said the trading scenario will
allow the utility industry to achieve significant environmental gains -- a 70
percent reduction from the current 48-ton annual level -- while simultaneously
spurring technological progress.
EPA last week closed the public comment period on its mercury proposal,
though the agency may still reopen the docket for additional feedback should it
release any new analyses or other data on the plan.
The administration's critics, meantime, have questioned Leavitt's 70 percent
reduction pledge, noting that the trading program would not generate such a
cut until about 2030. Many Democrats and environmentalists believe EPA is
illegally interpreting the Clean Air Act by advancing the trading approach,
contending the law requires the installation of Maximum Achievable Control
Technology
(MACT) on all of the nation's approximately 1,150 coal- and oil-fired power
plants.
In a hearing held earlier this year on EPA's FY '05 budget request, Senate
Democrats questioned whether Leavitt had ignored internal EPA data that shows
existing pollution control technologies implemented through MACT can achieve
between 70 percent and 90 percent cuts in mercury by 2010, and 90 percent to 95
percent by 2015.
But Leavitt defended the administration's plans by arguing that new pollution
control technologies may not be ready for wide deployment on the nation's
coal fleet in the timeframe mentioned by supporters of the MACT approach
(Greenwire, April 2). The Bush administration has also argued that its trading
program
will lead to greater reductions in the toxic metal than the MACT concept, a
point mirrored by the Electric Power Research Institute in a recently released
new report (Greenwire, June 16).
Since their release last winter, the Bush administration's mercury plans have
been the subject of scrutiny not only for the emission reductions they call
for but also for the process that went into their development. EPA has been
challenged for the type of modeling work it has undertaken, with critics
maintaining the administration refuses to do any study that would show its plan
is not
as effective as other more stringent alternatives. EPA's top air pollution
official, Jeff Holmstead, has repeatedly said he has no plans to study the MACT
options favored by Senate Democrats and environmentalists, even while Leavitt
has offered broad statements indicating he would order "whatever analysis is
necessary" to meet public health goals (Greenwire, May 5).
The Bush administration's mercury plans have also been questioned due to
similarities in the text of the rulemaking compared with utility industry
recommendations. The power plant industry's ideas have been found copied
verbatim in
at least two sections of the EPA's proposed rule (Greenwire, Feb. 26). In light
of those discoveries, EPA Inspector General Nikki Tinsley said in May that
she would take up a request from Senate Democrats to investigate how the Bush
administration developed its proposed mercury regulation. Tinsley's office has
not set a deadline to finish its report.
Schedule: The Senate Democrats' hearing is at 10 a.m. Friday, July 9, in 562
Dirksen.
Witnesses: Bradley Campbell, New Jersey commissioner of environmental
protection; John Paul, regional air pollution control agency, Dayton, Ohio; Lynn
Goldman, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health; David Foerter,
Institute for Clean Air Companies; Scott Sparlin, New Ulm Area Sportfishermen,
Minnesota.
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Matt Prindiville
Outreach Coordinator
Natural Resources Council of Maine
3 Wade Street, Augusta ME 04330
207-622-3101, ext 244


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