What Policymakers And Opinion
Leaders Are Saying About The U.S. EPA Proposal On Mercury From Power Plants
Lisa Madigan, Attorney
General, State of Illinois
"This Sunday, millions of Americans will watch the Academy Awards. Today,
we may have our own honor to hand out in a special category: working overtime
to ignore scientific data regarding dangerous toxins and their impact on public
health. And the winner would be the Bush Administration. By proposing to reverse
tough standards to protect the public health from mercury emissions, the Bush
Administration is ignoring clear and well-established evidence of the harm this
toxin causes. This toxin is such a problem in Illinois that the Illinois Department
of Public Health has issued a statewide fish consumption advisory, warning that
fish from every lake, stream and river may be laced with mercury."
Pat Quinn, Lieutenant
Governor, State of Illinois
"The toxic mercury proposal of the U. S. EPA is woefully inadequate, because
it will allow coal-fired power plants to emit six to seven times more mercury
into the environment compared to what the Clean Air Act currently requires.
The EPA proposal completely fails to protect Illinois families from dangerous
mercury exposure."
Peg Lautenschlager, Attorney
General, State of Wisconsin
"The theme of my message today to the EPA and to the Administration in
Washington is that you are proposing standards that are far too little, far
too late, and that our citizens, our children, future generations, and our environment
deserve far better protection from this poisonous pollution than you are offering
today."
Renee Cipriano, Director,
Illinois EPA
"These rulemakings have the potential to significantly and dramatically
improve the quality of life for millions of Americans. U.S. EPA must not compromise
its obligation to protect human health and the environment."
Rebecca Stanfield, Environmental
Attorney, Illinois PIRG
"Mountains of health research demonstrates a compelling need to dramatically
reduce mercury emissions from power plants, and there is no technological barrier
to doing so. U.S. EPA has simply put science in the back seat, and politics
in the driver's seat in making this important policy decision. This will put
another generation of American children at risk for severe neurological problems,
and is very likely downright illegal."
Lee Francis, MD, MPH,
Physicians for Social Responsibility
"We urge the EPA to cut mercury emissions from power plants by 90 percent
by 2008. Along with numerous child and public health experts, including the
EPA's own, we ask the EPA to make maternal and child health its first priority:
reduce utility mercury emissions as much as possible, as quickly as possible."
Monica Lasky, A New Mother
"I am blessed to have a healthy daughter, and I think that all mothers
should share the same blessings. The U.S. EPA now estimates that as many as
630,000 mothers each year will give birth to babies with dangerous levels of
mercury. This is an appalling statistic, but even more outrageous are the rules
proposed by the Bush administration that will allow polluters to emit more mercury
into our air and water than previously planned. What are they thinking?"
Walter J. Bock, Trout
Unlimited National Leadership Council Representative
"The expanding fish consumption advisories for mercury is putting recreational
fishing in jeopardy. When people have to monitor the type of fish, the amount
consumed over a set time period and other factors, the act of catching fish
becomes and act of risk assessment rather than recreation. It is unfortunate
that we and other citizens have to remind the Environmental Protection Agency
that its mandate is to protect the environment."
- News release: Midwestern
Officials And Public Health Groups Clash With U.S. EPA Over Inadequate Rules
For Toxic Mercury Pollution
- Fact sheet: 
The EPA's Weakening of the Clean
Air Act's Mercury Protections (PDF)
