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.

>

>

>

>