Moveon: need Letters to the Editor re:Stop the 10 yr mercury cleanup delay

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Seems the EPA plan to delay a scheduled cleanup of toxic mercury by over ten years so as to protect Bush's friends in the energy industry at the expense of our children's health is not getting much media attention.

MOVEON suggests that our papers need to know that mercury pollution from power plants has a direct impact on our families and should be covered closely and requests that folks take a few minutes today to write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Filling the nation's editorial pages with letters from concerned citizens is a great way to help keep the pressure on the Bush administration to protect us from mercury pollution.

Writing a letter to the editor doesn't actually take very long -- you can do it in ten minutes or less. A letter that's short, sweet, and to the point has the best chance of getting published.

Even though public comment has been overwhelmingly against delaying mercury cleanup, we have seen in similar situations that 99% negative public feedback is not always enough. We need to shine a very bright media spotlight on this issue. Not long ago, front page media attention to a proposal to weaken protection against arsenic pollution in our drinking water shamed the Bush administration into doing the right thing.


RESOURCES FOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Tips on how to get your letter published:

- Your own words, written from the heart, are always best.

- Brevity is the soul of wit.

- The key to publication is to pounce on something specific you've
seen in the newspaper -- anything that seems related to you.

- Be sure to include your name and address, and especially your phone
number when submitting your letter. Editors need to call you to
verify authorship before they can print your letter. They don't
print your phone number.

- Your newspaper's letters page should give you an email address or
fax number to use, or you can try this website:

http://congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/

Possible Talking points for letter

There is no uncertainty about the danger to the environment, and to humans, emanating from power plant mercury pollution.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 8% of women of childbearing age in the U.S. have mercury levels in their blood that are unsafe.

The EPA itself reports that 630,000 infants are born annually who are at risk for learning disabilities. Mercury is a toxic metal that can cause severe neurological and developmental problems in unborn fetuses and young children.

The EPA and forty-three states have now issued advisories warning people, especially women and children, to avoid or limit eating local fish because of mercury. This table shows the advisories that are in effect where you live

http://www.moveon.org/mercury/table.pdf

Source: Clear the Air coalition.

The Bush administration proposes to not regulate mercury as a dangerous poison, but instead to allow power plants to emit mercury pollution ten years longer than is necessary.

The EPA was initially planning to require power plants to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2008.

In December, the EPA announced a mercury plan that will expose our children to far more mercury, for far longer, than what the agency has said is achievable and cost-effective. The proposal also is less stringent than was recommended by the majority of the EPA's own panel of experts who spent more than two years working on this problem.

The EPA now proposes to regulate mercury from utility companies as if it were a non-hazardous pollutant, demanding only a 30 percent emission reduction and allowing some sources to avoid controls entirely by buying pollution "credits."

When plants are not forced to curb pollution but can buy pollution credits, it increases the chances that there will be communities where mercury pollution is more prevalent.

The proposal also would give polluters at least 15 years to make the reductions rather than the three years currently required by law.


The Bottom Line:

The EPA must protect our children by making all power plants install controls to stop mercury pollution by 2008.

More information can be found on MoveOn's Mercury Resources page:

http://www.moveon.org/mercury/mercury-resources.html