A coalition of power companies has launched a multi-million dollar campaign to convince members of Congress to support the Bush administration's misnamed "Clear Skies" air pollution bill. Through the Edison Electric Institute, hundreds of companies are pushing their employees, retirees and shareholders to send faxes to Congress, meet with members of Congress, and write to local newspapers. Even worse, these faxes falsely claim that the dirty air bill is good for the environment and public health!

The truth is that the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" air pollution plan will weaken public health protections, leading to more smog, soot and mercury pollution from old electric power plants than under current law.

Please take a moment to e-mail your members of Congress today and tell them that we need real solutions to the over 30,000 premature deaths and 160,000 asthma attacks that power plant pollution causes. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

To take action, click on this link: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=9&id4=OHFreep

UPDATE

As you may have heard, the Bush administration recently signed into law the second set of regulatory changes in only six months aimed at weakening the Clean Air Act's "New Source Review" (NSR) program. The Bush administration's newest changes will exempt 17,000 of the oldest and most polluting power plants, refineries and other facilities from the Clean Air Act New Source Review program.

The New Source Review provisions are a central part of the nation's clean air laws. They require the largest sources of air pollution to install modern pollution controls when they make changes to their facilities that increase pollution. For grandfathered sources, they are one of the few pollution control requirements under the law. While the EPA has done the bidding of the polluters, members of Congress need to step in and stop the Bush administration's attacks on the Clean Air Act.

BACKGROUND

The Bush administration's air pollution plan, dubbed "Clear Skies," would lead to more smog, soot and mercury contamination than would be allowed under the current Clean Air Act. That's why the White House plan is opposed by groups like the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, American Public Health Association and American Cancer Society.

It is unacceptable that in the year 2003 we are relying on a fleet of power plants that are using antique emission control technologies, if any at all. The consequences include millions of avoidable asthma attacks and tens of thousands of premature deaths each year, as well as acid rain, haze in our national parks, toxic mercury in our fish, and perhaps the most serious threat to our future, global warming.

Unfortunately, industry is working with the Bush administration to push plans that would weaken protections already in the current Clean Air Act. Industry wants more time to meet modern pollution standards, but they've had more than enough. Also, their plans fail to require any mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide, the leading cause of global warming.

Current technology allows us to do better, and the urgency of the health threats posed by this pollution demands that we address power plant pollution more seriously than industry and the Bush administration have proposed. Please take a moment to e-mail your members of Congress today, telling them that we need real solutions to the over 30,000 premature deaths and 160,000 asthma attacks that power plant pollution causes. Then, ask your family and friends to help.

pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=9&id4=OHFreep

Sincerely,
Erin Bowser