E.P.A. Accused of a Predetermined Finding on Mercury

[Rose Siding]

The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general charged on Thursday that the agency's senior management instructed staff members to arrive at a predetermined conclusion favoring industry when they prepared a proposed rule last year to reduce the amount of mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants.

Mercury, which can damage the neurological development of fetuses and young children, has been found in increasingly high concentrations in fish in rivers and streams in the United States.

The inspector general's report, citing anonymous agency staff members and internal e-mail messages, said the technological and scientific analysis by the agency was "compromised" to keep cleanup costs down for the utility industry.

The goal of senior management, the report said, was to allow the agency to say that the utility industry could do just as good a job through complying with the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" legislation as it could by installing costly equipment that a stringent mercury-control rule would require.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/04/national/04mercury.html?oref=login

[agates]

1. Bastards

Those dirty rotten bastards, playing their pro-business game with our children, our future.

[merwin]

2. but does it suprise you?

[agates]

7. I must admit this kind of did surprise me

I didn't think they could sink this low as to be so blatent about their pro-business anti-life stance. I know, I shouldn't be surprised.

[mom cat]

3. Aborting fetuses is a sin but poisoning them is good for business.

[agates]

4. Yeah

Pro-life my ass. I'm so steamed I'm nearly speechless. Just when I think I know how low this administration can sink, I have to revise my opinion.

[LiberalFighter]

13. Where are the pro-life on this issue?

[Robert Oak]

5. this is the kind of stuff that needs to be put

in those fundamentalists faces.

[genieroze]

6. Are you surprised? eom

[WestMichRad]

8. Sounds like the EPA's inspector general had better....

...start updating his resume.
/eom

[Liberty Belle]

9. Mercury poisoning in the US is at near-epidemic levels,

according to health experts I'm slated to interview next week for a business publication. Now I see why.

[Mend]

10. Autism, ADD, cancer......eom

[phylny]

11. Autism, I'm almost positive. My caseload grows weekly.

The finger was pointed at vaccines, but I think that what's happened to our water, land, and fish is where an ultimate culprit may lie.

Those of my children (3 girls) who eat fish have now stopped.

I can tell within two visits (speech therapy) which kids have PDD or autism. They're the only kids I work with who don't start talking within a month. It's scary. Makes me very sad.

[struggle4progress]

12. kick