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WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today reacted with outrage to the Bush Administration's announced proposal to abandon the regulation of mercury by 2007 through the strict toxic pollutant provisions of the Clean Air Act.
Instead, the Bush Administration has proposed using an untested provision of the Clean Air Act to establish a much more lax program that will keep toxic mercury emissions at 34 tons nationally by 2010. Under the Bush proposal, no additional mercury reductions would be expected until 2018. Yet EPA's own analyses, and industry-backed Connecticut legislation, show that far greater reductions of mercury are possible at limited costs.
“With this rollback of mercury regulations, the Bush Administration is giving new meaning to the term 'streamlining' - permitting the lining of our streams with harmful toxins,” Lieberman said. “President Bush ignored a court-ordered mercury reduction plan in the public's interest and once again caved to special interests in the coal and utilities industries. Polluters profit from this rollback and public health will suffer.”
“We know that one in twelve women has dangerous levels of mercury in her blood. We know that many of our streams and lakes, including every stream and lake in Connecticut, have advisories warning us not to eat the fish because they have too much of this toxic pollutant in them. We know that EPA's own analyses show that far greater reductions of mercury are possible at limited costs. And we know that the Bush Administration's failure to heed these facts will cost our environment and public health dearly. This is an Administration that calls itself pro-life and pro-family?”
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