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Top air polluters tied to Bush fundraising
Compiled by Finn Finneran
May 12 (AGR) -- The nations’ top polluters, as measured
in terms of mercury, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,
are power plants owned by corporations that are tightly allied with
the George W. Bush administration in terms of both campaign contributions
and pollution policy making, according to a new study from two nonprofit
and nonpartisan groups, the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and
Public Citizen. The report finds that sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide
pollution both rose from 2002 to 2003, posing higher risks to Americans
in terms of asthma attacks, lung ailments, premature death, and, in
the case of mercury, heightened risk of neurological damage to children.
The report says the Bush administration’s policies will allow the
nation’s oldest and dirtiest power plants to avoid pollution control
upgrades and tells a “classic Washington ‘follow the money’
story,” said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen’s
Congress Watch.
The 30 companies that own most of the dirtiest power plants in the country,
and their trade association, have raised $6.6 million for President
Bush and the Republican National Committee since 1999, and were given
relief from pollution regulations that would have cost them billions
of dollars.
Those 30 companies hired at least 16 lobbying or law firms which met
with Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force and the private
utility industry’s trade association at least 17 times to help
formulate the country’s energy and pollution policies. Plant industry
executives and lobbyists played key roles on several Bush transition
teams, with some given key positions at the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy.
The financial support was part of a concerted effort to block enforcement
actions brought by the Clinton administration, primarily under the Clean
Air Act’s New Source Review program, Clemente says.
“It is no coincidence that a wholesale assault on the Clean Air
Act is taking place today,” said Environmental Integrity Project
Director Eric Schaeffer. “This attack is part of a campaign by
a White House that understands what the industry wants and is willing
to do whatever it takes to make that happen. No one should have any
illusions about what is happening: This is a well-connected industry
that is absolutely intent on preserving its ‘right’ to foul
the air regardless of the consequences for the American public.”
Of the 89 plants that made it onto one or more of the dirtiest plant
lists, 47 -- well over half -- have been sued or placed under investigation
by EPA for violating the New Source Review requirement.
The EPA’s recently released 2003 emissions data show that power
plant SO2 emissions increased by more than 400,000 tons between 2002
and 2003, rising from 10.19 million tons to 10.59 million tons, or 3.9
percent. Carbon dioxide emissions increased by roughly 47 million tons
during the same period, from 2.425 billion tons in 2002, to 2.472 billion
tons in 2003, a two percent increase. Nitrogen oxide emissions from
power plants declined 5.6 percent, dropping from 4.36 million to 4.12
million tons.
In August 2003, the EPA relaxed the rules for New Source Review –-
exempting many facilities from the law’s permit and pollution control
requirements –- only to have a court stay the rules. Nonetheless,
the result of the Bush administration’s policy, coupled with the
program’s current legal limbo, is that many of these companies
have either had the cases against them undermined or simply dropped
by the Bush administration.
But the Republican National Committee dismissed the report as “partisan
politics” because the president of Public Citizen, Joan Claybrook,
has donated $450 to the campaign of presumptive Democratic presidential
candidate John F. Kerry, and liberal billionaire George Soros, has donated
generously to Public Citizen.
For their study, the two interest groups used federal data to identify
the 50 biggest polluting plants for each of three pollutants sulfur
dioxide, which causes acid rain, haze, and health problems; mercury,
which is linked to birth defects in children; and carbon dioxide, a
major contributor to global warming.
Relying on data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan,
nonprofit group that tracked campaign donations, the interest groups
then focused on the donations from the 30 companies that own most of
the plants on those lists.
Sources: Common Dreams, ENS, Los Angeles
Times
US prepares for plague of Brood X
By Dan Glaister
Los Angels, California, May, 12 — The headlines say it
all: “They’re coming!” “Region prepares for invasion,”
“Vanguard of Brood X marks its spot.” Or as the Los Angeles
Times put it: “Noisy little buggers about to hit the East.”
The “noisy little buggers” in question are cicadas, known
as Brood X because of the long time they spend underground as juveniles.
A few come out every year, but every 17 years something extraordinary
happens in the eastern US as billions emerge across several states.
The result is a noisy, sticky, scrunchy mess.
“Our house and the yard are now covered with them,” wrote
an excited visitor to cicadamania.com. “It was quite amusing watching
my wife sprint to her car with an umbrella over her head!”
But while the mess left by the inch-long insects will present an inconvenience
during the six weeks they are expected to be present, it is the noise
that will create the true discomfort.
Each male cicada produces a mating call so loud it registers between
80 and 100 decibels, the equivalent of a noisy car engine or a lawnmower.
With anything between 100,000 and 1 million expected per acre, the noise
should be phenomenal.
The 17-year Brood X hibernation period comes to an end when the inch-long
nymphs emerge from the ground, shed their skins, and turn into adults
with black bodies, red eyes, and orange-veined wings.
After a week, the female cicadas will lay eggs, which hatch after another
six weeks. The babies, or nymphs, then fall to the ground and burrow
into the soil, where they stay, sucking on the sap of tree roots, for
another 17 years, or until 2021.
“In 1970, the cicadas’ arrival had a locust-type effect like
the plague,” Robert Pitt of Allens Tree Service in Washington told
the LA Times. “But in 1987 it was not nearly as bad.”
Cicadas, as bug enthusiasts point out, differ from locusts. Although
both can arrive in swarms after long periods of hibernation, cicadas
are harmless and do not destroy crops and plants. Their main failing
is their bad eyesight, which causes them to fly into anything that vaguely
resembles a tree, including humans.
This year’s “emergence,” as web sites refer to the coming
event, will cover 15 states, from New York as far west as Illinois and
as far south as Georgia. The center is expected to be in Cincinnati.
And while many residents are taking precautions -- outdoor events such
as weddings and graduation ceremonies are being hastily rescheduled
-- some are licking their lips in anticipation at the invasion.
“They have a nutty flavor, almost like a pistachio nut,” David
George Gordon, author of the Eat-A-Bug Cookbook told the Washington
Post. He recommends a dry white chardonnay or a semillon blanc to accompany
them.
But not everyone shares his enthusiasm. The management at the Washington
Ritz-Carlton hotel shelved plans to offer a $10 appetizer of cicadas
rolled in flour, pan fried in olive oil with a white wine, butter and
shallot sauce.
Chef Frank Belosic said the idea was vetoed for fear that it would “scare
people away.”
Source: Guardian (UK)
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