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Mercury Rule Comment Period Ends
With Flood Of Public Objections;
Leahy And Jeffords Call On Bush Administration
To Listen, And To Reject EPA’s Industry-Written Mercury Rule
WASHINGTON (Thursday, April 29) -- Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jim
Jeffords (I-Vt.) held a news conference Thursday marking the end of
the public comment period for the Administration’s proposed mercury
emissions rule. The senators called on the Administration to listen to
the more than 400,000 public comments submitted on the rule instead of
the industry comments that were used to write the proposed rule.
“Despite the Bush Administration’s best
efforts to use every tactic in its public relations arsenal to
convince Americans that more mercury in their water, their food and
their bodies over a longer period of time is the best we can do, it is
not working,” Leahy said at the news conference. “The American people
have spoken, and EPA should listen to them instead of to the big
polluters.”
Jeffords said, "Sadly, the Bush
Administration=s
new rule on power plant mercury pollution will do very little to
protect public health. The rule calls for far less cleanup than what
is achievable with today=s
technologies
B
and required under the current Clean Air Act. "
According to the U.S. Public Interest
Research Group, the EPA has received more comments on the proposed
mercury rule than on any other rule the agency has ever proposed.
In January, the Bush Administration
announced a set of proposed mercury rules that would reduce mercury
emissions less significantly over a longer period of time than what
would occur if the Administration had followed the Clean Air Act. The
public comment period ends Friday.
Leahy and Jeffords have led a bipartisan coalition of senators in
opposition to the Administration’s draft mercury rule, asking the
Administration to withdraw it and start fresh. They have criticized
what they have called its “inadequate” emissions control standard and
have sent several letters to Administrator Michael Leavitt of the
Environmental Protection Agency, urging the Administration to crack
down on toxic mercury emissions.
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See Related Link:
See Related Photos:
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Mercury Rule Press
Conference (I of II)
[Pictured: Leahy speaks during the news conference as Rep. Tom Allen
(R-Maine) and others listen.]
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Mercury Rule Press
Conference (II of II) [Pictured: Senator Jeffords speaks as Sen.
Leahy listens. Members of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group hold
signs.]
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