Al Franken Says Allowing Pollution is a "Subsidy" [View All]

[Eric J in MN]

To listen to the audio discussed in this article, click below:
Al Franken and David Sirota talk about mercury pollution during March 22, 2005 'The Al Franken Show' radio broadcast


Al Franken said yesterday that companies "have no right to pollute...they should clean up their act."

Allowing pollution is a "subsidy for industry." It's not "free market enterprise" to let companies pollute, it's "giving them money."

The implication is that when a company saves money by polluting instead of upgrading to a cleaner way of manufacturing/transporting, the public pays the price a price in:

decreased health for adults
decreased health for babies
higher health care costs
fewer lands, rivers, and lakes people can enjoy

Al Franken was talking to regular guest David Sirota by phone about Bush's lax regulation of mercury.

Sirota said that top officials at Bush's EPA removed from an EPA report a study-about-mercury-from-the-Harvard School of Public Health.

The Harvard
study said the benefits of tighter mercury regulations were 100 times greater than the EPA report did.

An AP article discusses how Bush's EPA suppressed information on the dangers of mercury pollution, and notes ("EPA Chided for Disregarding Mercury Study," AP via New York Times, Mar. 22, 2005):

The government now advises that high levels of mercury in some fish, including albacore tuna, can pose a hazard for children and for pregnant or nursing women, causing brain and nerve damage.

MORE AT:
http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_03_23_al_franken_says_that_allowing_pollution_is_a_subsidy_for_the_polluters.asp