EPA to Allow More Carcinogens into Air Under New Secret Rule

[AGENDA21]

A secret proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency, so controversial that it has provoked strong internal dissent, would weaken nearly 100 toxic air pollution standards and allow industrial plants across the country to emit significantly greater amount of toxins, according to a draft rule obtained by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The draft rule would seriously erode existing standards under the Clean Air Act by permitting thousands of oil refineries, hazardous waste incinerators, chemical plants and steel mills to increase their emissions by as much as 50,000 pounds a year.

Yet EPA dismisses the concerns of its own experts by asserting that polluters would not increase their emissions because they fear "negative publicity" and because they want to "maintain their appearance as responsible businesses."

The rule is so extreme that officials at nine out of the EPA's ten regional offices joined in a nine-page memo to protest the proposal, saying that, if implemented, it "would be detrimental to the environment and undermine the intent" of the Clean Air Act.

http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0403-nrdc.html

[darkmaestro019]

1. Because that's what we need. Even DIRTIER air.

That's ok, you guys--glaciers are stupid and I hate beaches anyway. :sarcasm:

Yeah, I know, that didn't say CO2 or greenhouse gases--but I'm pretty sure some of those 100 toxic gases won't do the global warming any GOOD. Probably the utter opposite.

Hey, what do they care--without health insurance the cancer we get is OUR problem. Employment is so bad that there are ten workers scrambling behind you to take your job once you drop dead. No word on what we'll BREATHE once the air isn't just "toxic" but, unbreathable entirely.

[rodeodance]

5. part of the "Clean Air Act"

[acmejack]

8. Personal Responsibility

If your kids can't afford clean air at school it's because you aren't good parents and didn't plan your finances out in order to be able to be able to purchase them some!

[darkmaestro019]

10. I wonder how long it'll be before the breathing filters....

I shudder when I read that in sci-fi, in particular from authors who have been at it long enough and awfully prescient about other stuff. I'm pretty sure they'd cost a fair penny, too, except for the cheapo ones the average Joe or Jane could afford. Maybe the companies dumping this evil into the air should start side businesses making them! Hand over fist!

[Twist_U_Up]

2. Nothing about Contrails or Chemtrails though

but of course.................They have our backs

[greekspeak]

3. Thanks Environmental Prevention Agency

The Right Wing thanks you for saving them money and the rest of us thank you for killing the world off a little more quickly. Lets just do away with the agency. Its a waste of money.

[fasttense]

4. Great, do these idiot CEOs who run the EPA realize they still

have to breath the same air we do? I mean when you pollute the air, you can't block it off and say here the rich will breath this and the poor will breath this. It mingles and combines and eventually it leaks into their guarded and gated estates, poisoning not only the poor but the off spring of the rich and powerful as well. There is only so much an air conditioner and purifier can clean out. I guess they plan to lock themselves up in sanitized little boxes.

[enough]

6. Could come up in confirmation hearings today.

snip>

The rule was drafted during the tenure of William Wehrum, acting head of EPA's air office, and would reverse longstanding agency policy. The rule also seeks to go much further than a controversial 2003 approach sought by Wehrum's predecessor, Jeffery Holmstead.

President Bush has nominated Wehrum to succeed Holmstead. His confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is scheduled for Wednesday.

"Any nominee willing to weaken existing Clean Air Act protections to allow more cancer-causing pollution does not deserve the privilege of leading EPA's clean air programs," said Walke. "Mr. Wehrum should disavow this proposal, explain his role in its preparation and tell the American people whether this is how he plans to protect the air we breathe and the food we eat."

snip>

[AndyA]

7. This kind of crap would never be tolerated except under Repug leadership

I guess I would never expect the Republicans to grasp the fact that we only have one environment. Once ruined, it's ruined. I suppose the recent bad news about global warming has sailed right past them.

We really must get them out of office before the literally ruin the world.

[rodeodance]

9. when will this stop!

http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0403-nrdc.html



......The rule was drafted during the tenure of William Wehrum, acting head of EPA's air office, and would reverse longstanding agency policy. The rule also seeks to go much further than a controversial 2003 approach sought by Wehrum's predecessor, Jeffery Holmstead.

President Bush has nominated Wehrum to succeed Holmstead. His confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is scheduled for Wednesday.

"Any nominee willing to weaken existing Clean Air Act protections to allow more cancer-causing pollution does not deserve the privilege of leading EPA's clean air programs," said Walke. "Mr. Wehrum should disavow this proposal, explain his role in its preparation and tell the American people whether this is how he plans to protect the air we breathe and the food we eat."

The Clean Air Act requires EPA to impose standards for 188 different toxic substances emitted by industrial sources, ranging from benzene and asbestos to chlorine and formaldehyde. The draft rule would loosen restrictions on these toxic substances emitted by some 174 industrial sectors.

[leftchick]

11. NRDC is one of the best Earth Protectors

Donate if you are able....http://www.nrdc.org/joinGive/default.asp



No element of the natural world is more essential to life than air, and no environmental task more critical than keeping it clean. Because electric power plants and motor vehicles are by far the biggest sources of air pollution and its myriad effects, from lung damage to acid rain to global warming, NRDC focuses much of our clean air work on those industries. We also work to strengthen and enforce the Clean Air Act, which we helped write, and study and publicize the health threats caused by air pollution.