Buck In Brief

Clearing the Air on Capitol Hill

In Brief: Earthjustice is working hard to keep our lawmakers' heads out of the smog. This month, Buck shares some good news about the recent thwarting of the Bush administration's so-called "Clear Skies Initiative" which would drastically weaken the Clean Air Act and endanger public health. He also outlines a new rule put out by the Bush administration that would allow increases in mercury emissions over what the Act allows--not so good news.

03/15/05

Everyone who follows environmental issues is aware of the egregious policies of the Bush administration; its wrongdoings are well documented, as is its fondness for Orwellian euphemisms to describe a regressive agenda. The administration's "Clear Skies Initiative" is a classic example. It attaches a positive-sounding name to a policy that would allow higher emissions of sulfur, mercury, and nitrogen oxide than are now permitted under the Clean Air Act and would eliminate the enforceable deadlines and programs that make the Clean Air Act effective.

But you can't fool all the people all the time, or even all the Senate. Last week the Bush administration suffered its first environmental defeat of the year when legislation to enact the above-mentioned Clear Skies Initiative failed to garner a majority of votes from the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee. After much political wrangling, the committee could not break a 9-9 deadlock. This tie vote, which prevents the bill from moving to the floor of the Senate for a full vote, comes after committee chair, and noted clean air foe, James Inhofe was forced to cancel three previously scheduled committee votes because the bill lacked the necessary support.

The failure of this legislation to win a majority in the committee is due in no small part to the tireless advocacy of Earthjustice and the conservation community. That advocacy includes four years of door knocking, phone calling, letter writing, press conferences, community outreach, and face-to-face meetings with members of Congress and their staffs. Without that long, hard work the energy industry -- with its ample campaign contributions -- would have long since eviscerated the Clean Air Act. Since 1989, Senator Inhofe has accepted a total of $797,932 from the oil and gas industry and $231,813 from electric utilities; and the co-sponsor of Clear Skies, George Voinovich, chairman of the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, and Nuclear Safety, received $305,687 from electric utilities in his 2004 reelection campaign, after being largely ignored by the industry for much of his political career. (Visit www.opensecrets.org for in-depth reports on the dubious fundraising histories of these anti-environmental Senators.)

Still, despite the deep pockets of anti-environmental interests and intense pressure on committee members to change their votes, nine Senators voted in favor of clean air and public health. This includes one dissenting Republican, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who voted against the bill because it would undermine current Clean Air Act requirements and failed to address global warming and CO2 emissions. In his opening statement before the vote, Senator Chafee stated, "It just seems a shame to me that Congress is the last bastion of denial when it comes to climate change." Indeed, Senator Inhofe is on record calling global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

While the defeat of Clear Skies in committee is a significant blow to the Bush administration's (anti-) environmental agenda, we have not seen the last of this legislation. Already there are rumors that Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, will try to attach Clear Skies to upcoming energy legislation. In the House, Representative Joe Barton (R-TX) is holding a hearing on the legislation this week. We have won an important battle, but the war is far from over.

Still, in the wake of the Senate Committee's rejection of Clear Skies -- and thanks in part to pressure from Earthjustice and others -- EPA is now moving forward with a long-overdue step to implement the current law. The day after the committee vote, EPA released the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which requires cuts in power plant pollution responsible for much of the dirty air in the East and parts of the Midwest. The new rule is an important first step, but much stronger measures are needed to meet clean air deadlines and protect public health.

On another front, the administration has just released new rules that attempt to allow power plants to buy the "right" to emit mercury from one another. A result of a market in mercury emissions would be that pollution from this powerful neurotoxin could actually increase in some states. In addition, the new rules will allow power plants to continue their emissions of many other toxic substances, including more than eighty tons of lead and seventy tons of arsenic every year, without any emission standards whatsoever. Predictably, this key rule was crafted to accommodate corporate concerns rather than ensure protection of public health and ecosystems.

So the fight to protect the nation's clean air goes on, and it's fiercer than ever. For now, however, the Clean Air Act still has teeth, and the American people can enforce one of the most important public health measures on the books.

Vawter "Buck" Parker, Executive Director
buckparker@earthjustice.org