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After more than
a decade of doing public interest advocacy, I am still astounded
by the ongoing special interest influence and political lollygagging
that delays action on some of our most pressing environmental issues—even
in the face of common sense, easy-to-implement solutions.
Take PennEnvironment’s campaign to reduce mercury pollution at the
federal level as an example. Even as young children, we are taught
that mercury is bad for us—remember all of those lectures about
never touching a broken thermometer? That is because studies by
the National Academy of Sciences and others have shown that mercury
causes developmental and learning disorders—especially in children.
Research has also taught us that coal-fired power plants are the
largest source of mercury pollution, and that Pennsylvania’s power
plants are some of the worst emitters of mercury in the nation—only
two other states’ power plants release more mercury than Pennsylvania’s.
And the effects have been disastrous. Warnings have been issued
against eating fish caught in all of the state’s waterways due to
excessive mercury.
You would think that the knowledge that we are potentially endangering
the health of Pennsylvanians would be enough to convince our environmental
regulators in Washington, D.C., to dramatically reduce mercury pollution.
Instead, the federal government, under the influence of electric
companies, took a huge step backwards in March, when the Environmental
Protection Agency severely weakened mercury standards outlined in
the federal Clean Air Act, exacerbating the threat of mercury to
the public health.
That is why PennEnvironment has been working to convince Gov. Rendell
and state officials to pass our own mercury standards for Pennsylvania’s
power plants.
But electric companies are also powerful in our state capitol. They
hem and haw and complain. “It will cost too much,” they tell us,
or “the technology isn’t available,” they say.
So PennEnvironment’s advocates are working diligently to uncover
all the evidence showing that technologies exist to reduce mercury
levels from power plants by 90 percent, and that it would cost every
household less than the price of a cup of coffee each month to make
these reductions a reality. Our staff showed that just as we were
able to protect the public’s health by all but eliminating the threat
of lead poisoning in the ’70s, we could create the same profound
health protections from mercury today.
It’s times like this that PennEnvironment members like you are so
important. Because while we hope that our politicians and special
interests will listen to common sense solutions and then take action,
it usually takes a little prodding from the people who vote them
into office or buy their products to get the desired results.
I hope that you will take a minute to visit our Web site to e-mail
Gov. Rendell and ask him to implement mercury reduction standards
as soon as possible in order to protect our health. Because we know
that while our staff can make the compelling case, at the end of
the day, it will be vocal and active citizenry that will be the
catalyst for common-sense change.
Sincerely,
David
Masur
PennEnvironment Director
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