Life-saving Clean Air Act protections are not bargaining chips
Last week, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) released a long-awaited discussion draft of their climate and energy bill, the American Power Act. Among the bill's big giveaways to polluters was a surprise invitation to exempt dirty old power plants from clean-up requirements for soot, smog, and toxics such as mercury.
To be clear, this attack on the Clean Air Act goes well beyond controversial waivers of EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases. It undercuts safeguards that are slated to save tens of thousands of lives every year. This sweetener for coal plants is poisonous for Americans.
Every year, soot from coal plants kills an estimated 24,000 people and causes hundreds of thousands of cases of asthma and other serious illnesses, especially in children. The vast majority of this suffering, including 90 percent of premature deaths, is preventable with the installation of available, cost-effective pollution controls. However, power companies have managed, often illegally, to keep running dirty coal plants for maximum profit.
Finally, after years of court battles to enforce the Clean Air Act, we are on the verge of a solution. The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to set protective standards that would force long overdue clean-ups. By 2020, EPA estimates that emission reductions from effective implementation of the Clean Air Act will save us $1.2 trillion per year in mortality costs alone.
But coal plants want an out. And they may have found one in this alarming provision of the Kerry-Lieberman bill, which contemplates so-called "regulatory incentives" for plants that promise to retire or switch to cleaner fuels than coal. The idea is to allow old plants to keep operating without required controls so long as they commit to retire or switch fuels at some unspecified point in the future. The problem is that the plants most likely to take the carrot are the plants that would retire anyway. The "incentive" would only give them more time to keep polluting. The Clean Air Act already provides generous compliance periods that let old plants down gently and give planners time to make sure power needs are met. Giving them more time to operate without controls only boosts industry profits at the expense of communities.
Having polluted freely for decades, old coal plants do not deserve another free pass. Keep in mind that these same plants were grandfathered under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977—that is, exempted from clean-up requirements—on the promise that they would soon retire. Instead, the 800-plus coal-fired boilers that were installed pre-1977 (representing roughly 75 percent of our existing coal fleet) are still operating with lethal consequences. It's past time for them to clean up or shut down.
We cannot allow horse-trading on climate to become a vehicle for gutting Clean Air Act regulation of soot, smog, and air toxics. The health and well-being of the American people is not a bargaining chip.
Sens. Kerry and Lieberman have stated expressly that the bill they released on Wednesday is a discussion draft that is subject to change. No further discussion of so-called regulatory incentives is acceptable. Any mention of exempting coal plants from the Clean Air Act's fundamental safeguards needs to come out of the bill and off the negotiating table.
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So what did you all expect? Washington is ALL about power and money. There is no way a comprehensive climate bill will pass and be signed into law. Lobbyists from the energy and other companies will add as many poison pills as they can to either make the bill fail or neuter it. sesli sohbet
+I fully agree with those who say we need publicly funded election campaigns. I am not sure that we need term limits if we have publicly funded campaigns. Congress is a complex institution with myriad committees, rules, precedents, etc. Someone has to be around for a while to understand how to make the machine work. We also ought to require of television and other media companies that they provide free air time for campaigns. They are after all using the public airways.
Those people who blame Obama are making a mistake. Congress is the problem. The president may propose, but Congress disposes of legislative ideas. Obama's preferences are right, but he is a realist about what with the corruption of Congress as described above has a chance of making it into law. Remember the shakedowns of the health care bill by Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu?
Even more, if all well-meaning people do not come out and vote in the fall elections and we get reduced Democratic numbers in Congress, just think what the next two years will be like? Remember the environmental record of the Bush administration with both houses of Congress held by the radicals of the right? The near 60 vote majority in the Senate and the strong Democratic majority in the house are the only things letting any positive things come out of Congress now, though certainly not perfect as all agree.
Federal and state elections do need to be funded with public money only. No personal or fund raising by candidates. The ones in office are supposed to be working on legislation that we need--not campaigning for their next term!
We need term limits for all legislators--house and senate. There is a term limit for the president and govenors--why should the others be different? Allowing legislators unlimited terms is the biggest reason for "cronyism" between them and corporate interest--oil, health providers, power companies, defense contractors.
IN ORDER TO GET ANY MEANINGFUL LEGISLATION PASSED REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING:
A CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN THE ELECTION OF CONGRESS INCLUDING ; TERM LIMITS;THE LENGTH OF TERMS OF REPRESENTATIVES TO BE THREE YEARS AND CAN ONLY SERVE IN THREE TERMS; THE SENATE TO CAN ONLY SERVE TWO TERMS. ALL ELECTIONS TO BE FUNDED WITH PUBLIC MONEY ONLY. O CANDIDATE CAN FUND THEIR OWN OR ANY OTHERS RUNNING FOR OFFICE WITH PERSONAL MONEY.
THE REASONS FOR THE ABOVE ARE OBVIOUS. ANY MEANINGFUL CHANGES TO MAKE THEM STRONGER ARE WELCOME.
THIS WILL REQUIRE A GRASS ROOTS EFFORT BY THE CITIZENS SINCE CONGRESS, LOBBYISTS AND BUSINESS HAVE TOO MUCH SKIN IN THE GAME TO ATTEMPT THROUGH LEGISLATION.
AN INDEPENDENT CONGRESS OF NON-ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES FROM EVERY STATE NEED TO CONVENE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
WHAT SAY YOU.
I'LL PROBABLY END UP WITH MY PHONE BUGGED AND ON A"NO FLY LIST" BUT IT'S WORTH.
Do you notice any similarities between this "climate and energy" bill, the health care reform bill, and the finance industry reform bill? The corporate lobbyists arrive with money bulging out of their briefcases, and the legalized bribery guts any meaningful reform. It happens every time. The congressional corruption is nauseating. The only solution is to have publicly financed elections. Then, we may get a few public servants who actually want to serve the public.
Agreed that public funded elections are the answer to achieving meaningful reform.
It costs to care and make choices that support others and not just oneself.
I am SO disappointed that Obama has turned out to be flat-out anti-environmental! Pro off-shore drilling, pro wolf slaughter/arial gunning, pro no environmental regs for the big polluters - just a joint effort to wreck the environment and stress biodiversity to extinction limits. I consoled myself with the thought that if tea party politicians ran thngs, it would be worse. Now, it's looking like there may not be any difference
I'm 75 yrs. and I remember coal heating etc. when I was a 10 yr old...I thought we got rid of that filthy stuff years ago...Coal makes things black and sooty and gas turns them yellow and sticky! ugh! Gotta be a better way to heat your home and drive your car!
So what did you all expect? Washington is ALL about power and money. There is no way a comprehensive climate bill will pass and be signed into law. Lobbyists from the energy and other companies will add as many poison pills as they can to either make the bill fail or neuter it.
The name says it all: Lieberman
This is horrible that it kills 24,000 people a year. Something needs to be done about this. This is causing children lots of illnesses that can be prevented with clean air. Babies are dying because of this!! These plants need to be shut down or something else needs to be done.
THEY DON'T CARE! It's all about money and they don't care if some nameless faceless "numbers" die, it's just business. But eventually they WILL have to answer to a higher power for their actions...
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