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Lack of environmental protections causes more deaths than terrorism
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by Brenda Songy | 14, 2004

Americans have yet to be enlightened about the threat to our lives that we bring upon ourselves daily

Editor’s note: Brenda Songy, the mother of twin six-year-olds, is the new Chair of the Gulf Coast Group of Sierra Club. She has been spearheading the Coast Group’s new Children’s Health Campaign.

Many of you have been Sierra members and activists long before I, so I know that many of you share my frustration and disillusionment with the current Administration’s all-out assault on the air and water which sustains life on this planet.

Although it is disheartening, I want you to perceive these recent attacks as an opportunity. While our air and water have quietly been sacrificed in the name of profit over the past few decades, there has been little controversy or public awareness to slow this subtle erosion. The Bush Administration’s reckless and visible disregard for public health has shone a bright light onto a topic that has remained in the shadows for too long.

Americans watched in horror on September 11^th as nearly 3,000 Americans died at the hands of terrorists. We sat riveted to the television in disbelief as John Lee Malvo and John Allen Muhammed terrorized the D.C. area with their sniper attacks.

But Americans have yet to be enlightened about the threat to our lives that we bring upon ourselves daily….that 5,000 of our innocent children die annually, without provocation and without warning to asthma attacks caused by our own disregard for the environment, that chronic illness is the second leading cause of death of children in America. One could therefore visualize our power, chemical and oil companies making an annual event of piloting planes into the twin towers filled with our children. Although there are no dramatic flames, it makes this catastrophe no less tragic or makes those corporations responsible no less guilty. It’s time we fight the war on pollution. It is my hope that we use this current assault as an opportunity to educate the public.

For as Lynn White, Jr. wrote in 1967 "[W]e shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man."

Earlier this year a program appeared on CSpan regarding the Bush Administration’s gutting of the New Source Review [NSR], which was originally created by a bi-partisan commission in 1977 under the Clean Air Act.

Some items from this video which I found noteworthy are:

According to Senator Patrick Leahy: The EPA has doubled its estimate of newborns at risk because of high levels of mercury in their blood. One in six women now has a higher level of mercury than is considered safe in their blood. Rules were made from the top down with no EPA consideration on impacts on children’s health. A $1.4B settlement with Synergy has been negated by the Bush Administration’s gutting of the NSR. They now have no intention of honoring that agreement.

William Buckheit, former EPA Air Enforcement Division Director from 1996-2003 stated, "No companies have gone out of business that have made changes, and in many cases because of regulations, productivity was increased." He further went on to state, "The increase in fuel efficiency more than offset the cost of pollution control devices so that the net cost to the consumer was zero." Under a study performed by the Department of Energy, if NSR was implemented as originally written, 31 percent of the oldest plants would be replaced by new coal burning plants resulting in 25 mpg efficiency versus the current 15 mpg, creating more energy, cheaper. Although the industry states this upgrade will cost jobs, approximately 50 percent of the cost of upgrading comes directly from high-skill, high-wage blue-collar jobs.

Rates prior to the NSR changes in the fall of 2003 were previously at 95 percent for EPA for settlement. Under the current administration, staff has been reduced to 15 full-time employees and cases are stacking and stalled. Old cases have been boxed and sealed.

According to Senator Jim Jeffords, if all 51 power plants charged with exceeding air quality standards were to put on the best available controls, Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) pollution would be cut in half. Currently, 400,000 Americans have asthma attacks, and more than 20,000 people die annually from premature death resulting from air pollution.

According to Peg Lautenschlager, Attorney General of Wisconsin, there is a race to the bottom for pollution control as states vie for economic dollars: Under the new rule "Almost no dirty facility would ever trigger an NSR violation and have to be cleaned for pollution." Further, the current hoarding of emissions prevents other energy sources from coming in and competing. These rule changes are illegal as they have demonstrated substantial harm. It is false to espouse that we cannot increase energy production and protect our environment.

Mr. Eric Schaefer, former director of EPA Regulatory, Enforcement Division from 1997-02 stated that although statistics indicate that more than 600,000 infants are currently at risk by increases in mercury, this has simply been accepted by the Bush Administration. Most of these toxin releases come from half a dozen power plant companies that have combined revenues that exceed $125 billion per year. We can afford to beat this problem. A memo 2-1/2 years ago from then Administrator Whitman to Vice President Cheney stated, "What the industry cares about is the enforcement issues, and making them go away." Industries’ attorneys and lobbyists are currently writing legislation. NSR rollbacks completely wipe out the laws the government was trying to enforce. This Administration has only one stakeholder when it comes to the Clean Air Act, and that is the power industry and their lobbyists. Sections of the mercury rule were written by industry lobbyists and attorneys. Mr. Schaefer goes on to state that, "The current EPA will not debate issues in the sunlight and [their] ideological blindness [causes] facts to be misstated.

John Paul, Ohio Air Pollution Control Agency Supervisor, noted that the closed-process changes to the NSR in December of 2002 and August of 2003 "are serious detriments to public health and to environmental protection and they severely erode the ability of state and local air directors to control air pollution." Many rollbacks went beyond what industry requested and are mandatory. Routine Maintenance proposals are particularly egregious and they "will degrade our air quality and threaten public health." These changes would eviscerate the NSR program and undermine a state’s ability to enforce clean air rules. S)2 emissions which were over 960,000 tons in 2002 would have been cut by 90% by the original NSR standards. New rules will double or possibly triple SO2 emissions.

Lastly, Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota States. "We are nearing a point where we could have near-zero emissions with new clean coal technology at coal-fired electric generating plants."

Instead, as Republican President Theodore Roosevelt once stated, "Shortsighted men…in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things."

He had no idea when he made the statement nearly a century ago that those wild and beautiful things would be our children.