Clean Air News

NJPIRG Applauds Senator Torricelli For His Support

As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.

On the heels of President Bush breaking a major campaign promise to cut global warming pollution, today members of Congress introduced the "Clean Smokestacks Act of 2001" and "Clean Power Act of 2001." NJPIRG hailed this bipartisan effort as the standard on which all other power plant clean up proposals will be measured. These bills would regulate four pollutants from power plants including:

• Carbon Dioxide—which causes global warming,

• Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxides—which cause acid rain and urban soot and smog leading to premature death and make breathing difficult for all Americans, especially asthmatics, and

• Mercury—a potent fetal neurotoxin and the leading pollutant contaminating our lakes and streams.

"This is the most significant bill ever to address power plant pollution, said John Paul Guinan, Staff Attorney for NJPIRG. "We hope our states' congressional delegation will join Senator Torricelli in the fight to protect public health and the environment."

Public health impacts from power plant emissions range include hundreds of thousands asthma attacks to more than 30,000 premature deaths each year according to Abt Associates, the EPA's health assessment firm. Moreover, in New Jersey up to 40 percent of our polluted air blows in from the west, in large part due to midwestern power plants.

President Bush succumbed to fierce lobbying by coal and other industry lobbyists by walking away from a specific pledge to clean up power and the environment by requiring mandatory controls on all four pollutants, sending a troubling signal on public health and the environment.

"For years, Governor Whitman has pointed the finger at midwestern dirty coal power plants. Now, with President Bush's total reversal on clean air policy, she is being called on to put that finger in her pocket," said Guinan.

In the past Congress, all of New Jersey's Congressional delegation supported this bill, with the exception of Representative Frelinghuysen (R-11).

"We call on the entire delegation to support this critical clean air bill," said Guinan.

For comprehensive fact sheets explaining the Waxman / Boehlert "Clean Smokestacks Act," please go to www.cleartheair.org and click on "Fact Sheets." Additional fact sheets on power plant pollution and recent reports on the health and environmental impacts are available.