Re:White House Debates Mercury Policy Behind Closed Doors

[Guest guest]

White House Debates Mercury Policy Behind Closed Doors

December 15, 2003

http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/read.asp?fn=df12152003.html

Today is the EPA's deadline to announce its plan for regulating mercury from

coal-burning power plants. A leaked draft indicates it will downgrade mercury

as a toxin while weakening efforts to clean up mercury emissions.1

This weakening comes just days after the Food and Drug Administration

announced that it plans to warn women of child-bearing age and children to

limit

consumption of canned tuna because of high levels of mercury, which can cause

learning disabilities and other serious problems in fetuses and young

children.

On Dec. 5, the White House summoned EPA and FDA officials to discuss the

awkward timing of the contradictory mercury announcements. White House

officials

wanted the two agencies to brief them " to ensure federal communication about

mercury risks can be defended, " according to the trade publication Inside

EPA.

" No one's saying what happened at the meeting, " Bender, director of

the Mercury Policy Project, told BushGreenwatch.org. " What we do know is that

President Bush's EPA is slated today to formally announce a dramatic

weakening

of emission limits for mercury, a potent poison for children and the unborn,

from coal burning. It presents the appearance, and perhaps the reality, of

allowing children to be poisoned for the sake of campaign contributions. "

President Bush has been by far the top recipient of campaign contributions

from electric utilities since 2000.2 White House records show that while

utility

representatives were invited to discuss the mercury emission proposal with

the White House several times this fall, no consumer or public health groups

were included.3

Mercury is emitted by coal-fired power plants and is converted into a more

toxic form when it hits water, where it accumulates in fish. When people eat

contaminated fish, like tuna, they ingest the toxin. Canned tuna is the

most-consumed fish by women and children, the most vulnerable population,

Bender said.

So who benefits from the Administration's mercury rules?

Southern Company, for one. Five of the coal-burning utility's executives or

lobbyists are also among the elite group of President Bush's fundraising

Pioneers, having raised $100,000 each toward his 2004 campaign.

of

FirstEnergy also is a Pioneer, as is Rose of Burlington Northern,

which makes money mining and shipping coal. son of Union

Pacific,

another coal miner and shipper, has done even better: he has raised over

$200,000.4

Sources:

Washington Post, Dec. 3, 2003.

Center for Responsive Politics.

White House records on mercury MACT rule.

Public Citizen.