From Politico's Morning Energy:
Thursday the Environment and Economy panel will go after EPA’s plans for federal regulations on coal ash and other waste products from coal-fired power plants. EPA is considering two options for the rules: one preferred by environmental groups that would regulate ash as a hazardous waste and set binding standards for its disposal, and another industry-backed option that would declare ash non-hazardous, giving states more leeway in setting their own disposal standards.
Monday, April 11, 2011
EPA escapes the cut
The EPA barely escaped becoming collateral damage in last week's budget battle.
"EPA ESCAPES – The EPA has emerged unscathed from Friday’s last-minute budget deal as Democrats successfully fended off GOP attempts to cripple the agency’s climate regulations.
The agreement includes “no climate change or EPA language,” a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said after the deal had been brokered Friday, and the agency went unmentioned in a summary circulated by House Speaker John Boehner. Even a proposed study of the economic consequences of environmental regulations – a compromise Senate Democrats appeared ready to accept on Friday – has been dropped from the final deal, as Obama and Boehner found little common ground on the study’s specifics.
Republicans had hoped to use their budget leverage to strip EPA of its climate authority, as well as to attack regulations on mountaintop removal mining, coal ash waste from power plants and a host of other agency initiatives. Ultimately, the GOP dropped its anti-EPA provision at the eleventh hour, having used it to leverage billions in spending cuts."
Read the rest at Politico's Morning Score.
Plus, the fight over the air toxics protection begins: "On Friday the Energy and Power panel is back in action to take on EPA’s air quality regulations for industrial boilers, power plants and cement manufactures."
Stay tuned!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Get Involved!
There are many ways YOU can get involved in making sure the EPA does its job and protects Texas from toxic pollution.
1) Collect comment cards to show the EPA that regular Texans care about having a strong mercury protection, and send them to the Sierra Club office in Austin (1202 San Antonio Street, Austin TX 78701)
Download here (login: clubhouse, password: explore). The file is "** EPA Air Toxics Protection -- Comment Postcard - 3/11 ** (click to download PDF file)"
2) Write a Letter to the Editor to educate your community. Click here for a one-stop shop.
3) Host a screening of Coal Country, or Fighting Goliath, for your friends and family. Contact Flavia.Delafuente@SierraClub.org to get started.
4) Follow our campaign blog, www.cleanuptexasnow.org, to stay tuned!
1) Collect comment cards to show the EPA that regular Texans care about having a strong mercury protection, and send them to the Sierra Club office in Austin (1202 San Antonio Street, Austin TX 78701)
Download here (login: clubhouse, password: explore). The file is "** EPA Air Toxics Protection -- Comment Postcard - 3/11 ** (click to download PDF file)"
2) Write a Letter to the Editor to educate your community. Click here for a one-stop shop.
3) Host a screening of Coal Country, or Fighting Goliath, for your friends and family. Contact Flavia.Delafuente@SierraClub.org to get started.
4) Follow our campaign blog, www.cleanuptexasnow.org, to stay tuned!
For questions, comments, and concerns, email Flavia at Flavia.Delafuente@SierraClub.org
Sulphur Springs Mercury Hair-Testing Event
Last week, folks in Sulphur Springs gathered at their local Pizza Hut to talk about the effects of a lignite mine in their backyards and the Monticello coal plant, only an hour away. About twenty people were in attendance, and nine folks got their hair tested.
If you want to host a mercury hair-testing event in your area, email
If you want to host a mercury hair-testing event in your area, email
flavia.delafuente@sierraclub.org
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Final Standard for Air Toxics
EPA Issues Final Standard to Protect Americans from Boilers’ Toxic Air Pollution
Health protections will modestly reduce dangerous emissions
Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a final health standard that will limit emissions of mercury, lead, arsenic, acid gases and other toxic pollutants from industrial boilers. This commonsense air toxics safeguard, often called the “Boiler MACT (Maximum Available Control Technology),” will save thousands of lives, and prevent thousands of cases of asthma attacks, heart attacks and hospital visits.
Industrial boilers are on-site power plants at places like universities and industrial facilities like chemical plants, refineries and paper mills. By controlling these plants’ pollution, EPA’s air toxics safeguard will protect Americans from breathing some of the most dangerous and toxic pollutants known to us – arsenic, lead, acid gases and mercury. Even in small amounts, these life-threatening air pollutants are linked to cancer, birth defects, brain damage and even early death. Without this critical protection, millions of tons of air toxics will continue to be released into our air each year.
“Corporate polluters are literally making us sick, and these long overdue protections from EPA will save lives and improve the health of millions of Americans,” said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. “Though the announcement today is modest by comparison to the proposals put forth by the EPA last June, we urge Administrator Lisa Jackson to forge ahead to protect our children and families’ health.”
Not content with having weakened important protections like the air toxics safeguard, polluting industries continue to push their agenda to roll back and even block public health protections and clean air standards.
“If the corporate lobbyists succeed in killing these health protections, Americans will pay the price with the lives and health of their family members,” said James Pew, staff attorney at Earthjustice. “Controlling the toxic pollution from industrial boilers will save lives, prevent billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs, and put thousands of Americans to work.”
Who's got the MACT?
Not Texas. And we need it.
Due to the Clean Air Act, the EPA will be proposing a series of public health protections this year, including boiler MACT, which is intended to limit hazardous air pollutants, or air toxics. The boiler MACT (maximum available control technology) protection will cut down on emissions of air toxics like mercury, arsenic, lead, dioxin, and acid gases.
How? It basically means that all of our dirty ol' powerplants will need to install equipment to match the best-performing and cleanest plants for each type of pollutant. Existing power plants will have more time to meet the standard—taking into account available technologies and cost.
To be clear: mercury is a neurotoxin. It can cause central nervous system damage. It is the reason for which many lakes and rivers have warnings about eating the fish, and why pregnant women are advised not to eat any seafood at all.
Of course, some people don't think the EPA should exist, or enforce the Clean Air Act, blah blah blah. Well, forget them. We need this. And we need to show that we want the EPA to do its job.
Get Active. Sign up to be a Texas Healthkeeper.
But why should Texans care?
One teaspoon of mercury is sufficient to contaminate a 20-acre lake. Our lakes.
But we'll let these pictures do the talking: it's probably worth a thousand words.
From Environment Texas.
From Environment Texas.
From Environment Texas.
Ready to protect our Texas rivers, our land, and most importantly, our health?
Join us!
Get Active. Sign up to be a Texas Healthkeeper.
Flavia de la Fuente
Conservation Organizer
Due to the Clean Air Act, the EPA will be proposing a series of public health protections this year, including boiler MACT, which is intended to limit hazardous air pollutants, or air toxics. The boiler MACT (maximum available control technology) protection will cut down on emissions of air toxics like mercury, arsenic, lead, dioxin, and acid gases.
How? It basically means that all of our dirty ol' powerplants will need to install equipment to match the best-performing and cleanest plants for each type of pollutant. Existing power plants will have more time to meet the standard—taking into account available technologies and cost.
To be clear: mercury is a neurotoxin. It can cause central nervous system damage. It is the reason for which many lakes and rivers have warnings about eating the fish, and why pregnant women are advised not to eat any seafood at all.
Of course, some people don't think the EPA should exist, or enforce the Clean Air Act, blah blah blah. Well, forget them. We need this. And we need to show that we want the EPA to do its job.
Get Active. Sign up to be a Texas Healthkeeper.
But why should Texans care?
One teaspoon of mercury is sufficient to contaminate a 20-acre lake. Our lakes.
But we'll let these pictures do the talking: it's probably worth a thousand words.
From Environment Texas.From Environment Texas.From Environment Texas.
Ready to protect our Texas rivers, our land, and most importantly, our health?
Join us!
Get Active. Sign up to be a Texas Healthkeeper.
Flavia de la Fuente
Conservation Organizer
Related articles
- Republican Budget Launches Sneak Attacks on Clean Air Protections (switchboard.nrdc.org)
- Court Admits Blame for Med-Waste Incinerator Confusion (nytimes.com)
- Boiler Battle (pubs.acs.org)
- Why Mercury is a Problem (sierraclub.typepad.com)
- EPA Seeks to Delay Controversial Air Pollution Rules for Boilers (nytimes.com)
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Study identifies 39 Additional Contaminated Coal Ash Sites
From Environmental Integrity Project
Days before the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) kicks off a series of regional hearings across the United States on whether and how to regulate toxic coal ash waste from coal-fired power plants, a major new study identifies 39 additional coal-ash dump sites in 21 states that are contaminating drinking water or surface water with arsenic and other heavy metals. The report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Earthjustice and the Sierra Club documents the fact that state governments are not adequately monitoring the coal combustion waste (CCW) disposal sites and that the USEPA needs to enact strong new regulations to protect the public. The report shows that, at every one of the coal ash dump sites equipped with groundwater monitoring wells, concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic or lead exceed federal health-based standards for drinking water, with concentrations at Hatfield’s Ferry site in Pennsylvania reaching as high as 341 times the federal standard for arsenic.
Days before the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) kicks off a series of regional hearings across the United States on whether and how to regulate toxic coal ash waste from coal-fired power plants, a major new study identifies 39 additional coal-ash dump sites in 21 states that are contaminating drinking water or surface water with arsenic and other heavy metals. The report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Earthjustice and the Sierra Club documents the fact that state governments are not adequately monitoring the coal combustion waste (CCW) disposal sites and that the USEPA needs to enact strong new regulations to protect the public. The report shows that, at every one of the coal ash dump sites equipped with groundwater monitoring wells, concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic or lead exceed federal health-based standards for drinking water, with concentrations at Hatfield’s Ferry site in Pennsylvania reaching as high as 341 times the federal standard for arsenic.
For the Press Release, click here.
For Report, click here.
For News Conference audio, click here.
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