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April 6, 2004
The Kill Your Kids Initiative
"I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them." Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., Speech during 1952 Presidential Campaign

A great quote, but since such a deal is unlikely to be made, and they keep telling all kinds of lies, we'll just have to keep telling the truth about those rat bastards.

To wit:
This morning I woke up and read this NY Times Magazine Cover Story about the Bush administrations evisceration of the Clean Air Act, their repeal of New Source Review and various other not-often-talked-about environmental disasters.

I literally felt a little sick after reading this article.

The basic idea is this:
Under the Clean Air Act, adopted in 1970, power plants were allowed to phase in environmental upgrades over time by something known as New Source Review. If they made significant upgrades to their plants, they had to install modern pollution controls to meet current standards. As long as the plants weren't upgraded, the old standards were in effect.

Seems reasonable. All plants will need upgrades eventually, and this way an energy company can schedule it out over a period of years, thus defraying the cost. (What I've never understood is why they moan so much. When they do have to make these changes, they just pass the cost on to the consumer anyway, by raising their rates, and usually their profits.)

Well, for 20 years, most energy companies ignored the rules and systematically broke the law. The Clinton administration decided to start enforcing the law and fining and prosecuting violators. These investigations were going very well, they were about to reach deals with many companies that would have forced compliance and would have, among other benefits, reduced fine particulate emissions by up to 95%. Public health researchers estimate that these emissions cut short the lives of 30,000 Americans a year.

Not to mention mercury emissions, considering we've just been told not to eat tuna more than once a week.

The Bush administration came into office and basically dropped the charges. They used complicated rules-changes to completely gut New Source Review, and took virtually all funding away from EPA enforcement. A recommendation by the EPA's enforcement agency for the new rules was to allow plants to upgrade 0.75% of their worth in a year before they were forced to comply with the laws.

The administration rejected this figure, instead setting the limit at 20%.

So, say the worst polluting power plant in the country is worth $1 billion. They can perform "routine maintenance" of $200 million a year without upgrading their pollution controls. In 5 years they could rebuild the entire plant, while still polluting as much as ever.

Our leaders concept is that if left to their own devices, these companies will regulate themselves.

Everyone should take 20 minutes and read this article. More importantly, send it to your Republican friends and family. If you live in rural America, ask around if people have been noticing more asthma in their children. Then see if they have a Bush/Cheney sign on their lawn.

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