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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (504870)	12/6/2003 11:04:09 AM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

"hoot" is not exactly the word I was thinking of.

To: jlallen who wrote (504870)	12/6/2003 11:04:58 AM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Report: Air pollution a real threat Group: PSNH plant was wrong about mercury BY REBECCA TSAROS DICKSON Monitor staff The New Hampshire chapter of the National Environmental Trust released a comprehensive mercury emissions report yesterday, blasting the Bush administration's proposal to stop classifying mercury as toxic rather than installing pollution controls. Under the Clean Air Act, companies are required to reduce mercury emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to announce how by Dec. 15. But Bush's proposal aims at changing the law, ultimately allowing companies to continue to emit mercury at unhealthy levels, according to the environmental trust. Mercury air pollution from coal-fired power plants contaminates water bodies and concentrates in fish. When humans eat some types of seafood, the mercury damages children's brains, kidneys and nervous systems and can harm adult immune and cardiovascular systems, according to the report. "The health of our children is being ambushed with a capital B. The technology is available (to reduce toxic emissions), and the administration's proposal won't solve the problem of reducing mercury," said Jan Pendlebury, director of the state's environmental trust. The 23-page report says coal-burning power plants are the only major mercury polluters still unregulated under federal clean air standards and that Public Service of New Hampshire's plant in Bow is the largest emitter of mercury in the state. The report alleges that officials at PSNH incorrectly reported the amount of its emissions in 2001. The study said PSNH emitted almost 125 pounds of mercury that year, almost six times the 21 pounds that PSNH reported that year. But the electric company said it used an EPA-approved formula to estimate the 21 pounds. Officials at PSNH say they agree that the previous estimate was incorrect. "Now, we have the information to accurately say what we emit, and we can work with the state to reduce that even more, if possible," said Martin Murray, PSNH spokesman. "That 124 pounds, it's important to realize that PSNH burns more than 1.5 million tons of coal a year. Given the fact that it's such a relatively tiny fraction of a very large number, it's obviously a challenging engineering feat to reduce it even more than the existing technology already does." But a company that makes equipment to reduce mercury emissions and other toxins by up to 90 percent is right here in New Hampshire. Powerspan in New Durham has been conducting tests at a plant in Ohio since February 2002. The project is part of a $2.8 million cooperative agreement with the National Energy Technology Labs and the U.S. Department of Energy. Powerspan officials said they also have almost completed a larger demonstration at the same plant, cleaning about one-third of the plant's emissions. "It's a good indicator of what we can do," said Stephanie Procopis, marketing director. And the equipment costs about two-thirds of similar emissions reducers. Bob Varney, regional administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency will propose a rule by Dec. 15 that will reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent. "There are two alternatives," he said: the Maximum Achievable Control Technology approach, which involves equipment like Powerspan's, and the Bush administration's preferred approach, which stops treating mercury as a toxic substance. "We will propose one by the 15th, but it'll only be a proposal," he said. "Air pollution will be significantly reduced over the next decade. And the reason for that is . . . we've been aggressive in reducing pollution from other sources. . . . People have a tendency, they get so fixated on power plants that they forget that there are all these other sources of pollutants." Regardless of the source, the report says, serious human health threats remain while little research has been done. "Neither the electric industry nor the EPA has examined either the potential long-term risk to mothers, their children, the elderly or to people with respiratory illnesses," the report said. Dr. Jim Pilliod, a pediatrician and Republican state representative from Belmont, said yesterday that it's impossible to know which illnesses mercury poisoning causes. "What we are seeing in this country is a huge number of learning disabled children. I can't say that's mercury, but I've got to think that we're doing something wrong in our environment," he said. "Shall we someday discover that the reason we're prescribing so much Ritalin is because of mercury? Maybe. But I can't reach into a child's brain and test for it. . . . Could we perhaps be preventive? Do we have to wait until we have known, widespread mercury poisonings?" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: jlallen who wrote (504870)	12/6/2003 11:05:51 AM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

JLA, your air pollution and mercury in New Hampshire comes with compliments from G W Bush.

To: jlallen who wrote (504870)	12/6/2003 11:07:14 AM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Respond to of 769670

...coal-burning power plants are the only major mercury polluters still unregulated under federal clean air standards and that Public Service of New Hampshire's plant in Bow is the largest emitter of mercury in the state. The report alleges that officials at PSNH incorrectly reported the amount of its emissions in 2001. The study said PSNH emitted almost 125 pounds of mercury that year, almost six times the 21 pounds that PSNH reported that year. But the electric company said it used an EPA-approved formula to estimate the 21 pounds.</I.