Complete list of press releases

The New York City Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a set of bills that will help clean up New York City’s air by curbing pollution from city owned vehicles.  Those bills are to be voted out of the Council’s environment committee Tuesday.

“The bills before the City Council represent the most comprehensive commitment New York City has yet made to bring clean car and truck technology to New York City streets,” said Andy Darrell, Living Cities program director at Environmental Defense.  “Existing city fleet rules are over a decade old and are missing out on the cleanest and best technologies the market has to offer.  The City’s commitment would set a precedent for the country and help drive the market for clean vehicles.”

The bills require clean air technology for cars, diesel trucks, school buses, sanitation trucks and sight-seeing buses controlled by city fleets or contracts.  In each case, the bills require the best available clean air technology to reduce fine particulate matter (soot) and nitrogen oxide (NOx), a key precursor to smog.   They also require improvements in fuel efficiency over time, to help cut greenhouse emissions, which lead to global warming.

“Diesel tailpipes are like giant cigarettes — targeted delivery devices for dirty air,” said Darrell.   “Tailpipe pollution produces over 80% of the cancer risk in the ambient air New Yorkers breathe, yet the technology exists to solve the problem.  Cost effective technology exists to cut tailpipe pollution from school buses, trucks and buses up to 90%.  We ask the mayor to build on the success of Local Law 77, enacted in 2003, and sign these bills into law quickly.”

(15 April 2005)  Environmental Defense today agreed to modify a court-ordered consent decree by giving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency until June 15, 2005 to issue final rules cutting haze air pollution in national parks.   The rules were due today under a lawsuit Environmental Defense filed against the agency in 2003.  The rules are required to cut haze air pollution in 156 protected national parks and wilderness areas, such as national treasures like Acadia, the Grand Canyon, Great Smokies, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, Shenandoah, Yellowstone, and Yosemite national parks. 

“Our national parks are a precious American legacy, and current pollution levels are threatening the health of park visitors, harming ecosystems and cloaking vistas in haze,” said Environmental Defense senior attorney Vickie Patton.  “The nation needs a strong EPA program that protects national parks from harmful air pollution.  We’re urging the EPA to take this extra time to develop clean air standards that in fact protect our national parks from harmful air pollution.”

The EPA guidelines now due on June 15 will help project 156 national parks by applying pollution controls on nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide pollution from 26 categories of industrial sources constructed between 1962 and 1977.   The industrial sources include power plants, industrial boilers, smelters, refineries, chemical facilities, cement plants, and pulp and paper mills.  States nationwide will use the guidelines to develop plans, due to EPA by December 2007, that demonstrate progress toward restoring natural visibility conditions. 

According to data released by the National Park Service in February, national parks across the interior western United States - from Glacier in the north to Grand Canyon in the south - are suffering from worsening air pollution conditions or have shown no improvement over the past decade.   In this region of the country, home to some of the nation’s premier national parks, worsening pollution levels have been recorded from 1994-2003 for the following indicators:  the haziest days, ozone “smog” levels, nitrate concentrations and ammonium concentrations.  See the National Park Service website at http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/who/npsPerfMeasures.htm, click on “detailed results” and scroll down to Figures 2, 4, 6 and 7.  

Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 400,000 members.  Since 1967, Environmental Defense has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems.

www.environmentaldefense.org

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An obscure, little noticed amendment by Senator John Warner (R-VA) to the Senate transportation bill, “SAFETEA”, would curb state’s flexibility of using tolls on existing lanes to better manage traffic and improve public transportation.  The amendment, quietly added without debate on March 16, 2005, strikes a provision that was supported by road construction, transit and environmental interests, but opposed by the American Trucking Associations.

“By excising three words and a comma, this well-cloaked amendment transformed a widely supported, carefully balanced tolling provision into a recipe for creating more traffic and less public transportation, more pollution and less public health protection,” said Michael Replogle, transportation director for Environmental Defense. “Today we are withdrawing our support for the Senate tolling provision because it now includes language that restricts tolling to only new road lanes.”

Barring tolling on existing roads hurts communities without the desire or room to add new lanes but that need better traffic management and funding for transit.  The proposal would also cause many new toll lane projects to move to the front of the line to soak up scarce public funds for transportation investment that might better go to serve other local priorities, rather than subsidizing big new toll roads.

“In an open debate in the House, the proposal to put tolls only on new roads was overwhelmingly defeated and that same open debate should have occurred when the proposal was offered in the Senate,” said Replogle.  “By approving this proposal the Senate has missed an opportunity to use the cost effective and excellent tool of tolling to help curb congestion and air pollution.” 

On March 9, 2005 the House of Representatives considered and defeated 155-265 a proposal submitted by Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-MN) and promoted by the American Trucking Associations that would have allowed tolls only on new road lanes while barring tolls on existing lanes. That amendment was opposed by those seeking increased flexibility for states to toll both new and existing lanes for traffic management and revenue, including the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the American Road and Transportation Builders, the American Public Transportation Association and Environmental Defense.

“The House transportation bill, H.R. 3, now does less damage to environment and public health than the Senate bill on an array of matters - congestion pricing, clean air conformity, project review and planning rules and protection for parks,” said Replogle.

H.R. 3 continues to authorize non-toll market incentives, such as Pay-As-You-Drive car insurance that can save consumers money while cutting traffic and pollution, guarantees these projects $3 million per year in pilot project funding and provides more overall funding ($15 million a year) for congestion pricing pilot projects.  The Senate bill removes authority for non-toll market incentive pilot programs, funding only new toll road projects.

Today the New York City Council is holding hearings on a set of bills that will help clean up New York City’s air by curbing pollution from city owned vehicles. 

The following statements may be attributed to Andy Darrell, Living Cities program director at Environmental Defense.

“The transportation sector is responsible for over 80% of the air cancer risk in New York City, so cleaning up cars, trucks and other diesel engines is critical for our health. ”

“If enacted, the bills before the City Council would represent the most comprehensive commitment New York City has yet made to bring clean car and truck technology to our streets.  The City’s commitment would set a precedent for the country and help drive the market for clean vehicles.”

“Cost effective technology exists to cut tailpipe pollution from school buses, trucks and buses up to 90%.  New York’s fleet purchasing laws are fifteen years old and are missing the opportunity to take advantage of this pollution reduction.  These bills will bring New York City’s law into line with the cleanest technologies on the market today.”

The Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing was awarded today to the Sacramento Bee for its editorial series on the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. 

Environmental Defense congratulates Tom Philp and the Sacramento Bee for this great honor, and commends them for recognizing that the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley, in Yosemite National Park is a unique, economically feasible, opportunity.

The first editorial of the Bee series was published as Environmental Defense was completing our report, Paradise Regained: Solutions for Restoring Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley, which analyzed the feasibility of restoring the submerged valley.  The report’s release and the Bee’s continuing series launched restoration from a good idea to the center stage of California’s public debate.  Tom Philp and the Sacramento Bee were the first to publicly address the valley’s restoration, and their well-researched analysis added clarity and insight to the public debate.

And for that very reason, it has caught fire in California. Members of the California Legislature are backing the idea.  Governor Schwarzenegger’s administration is studying its feasibility.  Nearly 6,000 Californians have signed an online petition urging state leaders to carefully examine the possibility.

Since the series began, the restoration effort has, indeed, garnered significant momentum. As a result of the series, Assembly member Lois Wolk (D-Davis), who chairs the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee in Sacramento, has become a vocal proponent of restoration. The idea was praised by Assemblyman Tim Leslie, a conservative Republican representing Tahoe City, in an op-ed he penned for the Sacramento Bee.

This past November, California’s Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman announced that this summer, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration will issue an analysis of existing restoration studies (including Environmental Defense’s report).

And later this spring (between April and June) the scoping process for the environmental review of the physical upgrade of the Tuolumne River water system will begin. We have encouraged the Commission and other policymakers to make sure that studying the feasibility of restoring Hetch Hetchy is a part of the SFPUC’s process as it examines its options for retrofitting and possibly expanding the system’s infrastructure.

The restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley is both a unique environmental story and Pulitzer nomination.  Past environmental entries, whether for news or editorial writing, have focused on threats or problems.  So too have been most environmental issues that make their way to the national stage. The story of Hetch Hetchy’s restoration, however, is about hope and possibility.  California has the opportunity, as E.O. Wilson wrote in The Diversity of Life, “to go beyond mere salvage to begin the restoration of natural environments, in order to enlarge wild populations and stanch the hemorrhaging of biological wealth.”

See the latest news articles and opinion pieces about the effort to restore Hetch Hetchy at www.discoverhetchhetchy.org/.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors is expected today to approve as much as $270 million in guarantees and grants for the $1.3 billion Nam Theun 2 hydropower project in Laos. The Bank is supporting this high-risk project despite the Lao Government’s record of corruption, secrecy and human rights violations.  Environmental Defense expressed extreme disappointment that the World Bank will provide public funds to support a dam with questionable economic justification that will have severe negative impacts on the environment and livelihoods of more than 100,000 Lao villagers. 

“The purported benefits of Nam Theun 2 are dwarfed by the massive costs that tens of thousands of Lao farmers and fishermen will bear,” said Environmental Defense international policy analyst Shannon Lawrence. “Claims that Nam Theun 2 will help the poor ignore its irreversible social and environmental risks and political realities in Laos.”

“The approval of the high-risk, low-reward Nam Theun 2 dam sets a dangerous precedent as the Bank scales up its support for large infrastructure projects and ushers in a new president,” said Lawrence.

The 1070 MW Nam Theun 2 dam will forcibly displace 6,200 indigenous people in central Laos and devastate the fisheries, water sources, and riverbank gardens of more than 100,000 downstream villagers along the Nam Theun and Xe Bang Fai rivers. Through power sales to Thailand, the project will generate revenue for Laos amounting to approximately 5 percent of total Lao Government revenues for the 25-year concession period. The World Bank and other donors claim that the revenues will be used to fund poverty alleviation programs, but critics are skeptical based on the Lao government’s track record in managing its budget, ensuring the rights of its citizens, and protecting the environment.  By providing support to Nam Theun 2 the World Bank has ignored the World Commission on Dams recommendations and its own social and environmental standards. Nam Theun 2 is being developed by Electricite de France and two Thai companies in cooperation with the Lao Government.

Contact: Kathleen Goldstein, Environmental Defense, 202-841-0295
 
(March 30, 2005 - New York, NY)  Environmental Defense today released the results of its fish oil supplement survey, which determined the best and worst choices based on company responses concerning removal of environmental contaminants. More than two-thirds of the companies contacted comply with the strictest standards, which is encouraging since consumers are increasingly taking fish oil supplements for their beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, and want to know that the products are safe.

“Fish oil supplements are a great way to reduce your risk of heart disease, but all supplements are not created equal,” said Environmental Defense scientist Dr. Rebecca Goldburg.  “Consumers should be aware of potential risks from environmental contaminants such as PCBs and dioxins.”

Sales of such omega-3 supplements have more than tripled since 1998, reaching $190 million in 2003.  However, unpurified fish oil supplements can contain unsafe levels of environmental contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The presence of pollutants is a widespread problem, not just in oils but also in popular fish such as tuna, swordfish and farmed salmon as well.   

“Environmental contaminants like PCBs and dioxins are potent developmental and neurological toxins,” said Environmental Defense health program director Dr. John Balbus, MD, MPH.  “People take supplements to be healthy, but if they don’t choose the right ones they could be sabotaging themselves.”

Environmental Defense surveyed 54 major producers and suppliers of fish oil supplements in the United States to see if and how they are addressing health risks from environmental contaminants.  They evaluated standards from a number of U.S. and foreign government agencies.  Since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and State of California (Proposition 65) limits were the most protective of human health, they used these standards as the survey’s baseline. In addition, the Council for Responsible Nutrition - a trade association comprising many of the companies surveyed - has established voluntary standards equal to or more stringent than those set by EPA and California’s Proposition 65.  

“We are encouraged by the number of companies that voluntarily cooperated with Environmental Defense’s efforts to make this information public,” said Council for Responsible Nutrition President Annette Dickinson, Ph.D.  “We are pleased, too, that so many companies are taking care to manufacture fish oil supplements that rate high in purity and quality.”

More than two-thirds (37) of the 54 companies contacted verified that they met the strictest U.S. standards for contaminants. These companies use highly effective purification processes - molecular distillation and steam deodorization - to separate pollutants from the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids.  Nine companies’ responses were incomplete, and eight companies did not respond.

Overall, fish oil supplements are an ecologically acceptable as well as healthful choice for consumers.  But, in the future consumers will ideally be able to choose fish oil supplements that are not only properly purified, but also derived only from well-managed, ecologically sound fisheries.  

To learn more or view the survey chart, visit www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm. 

Today Environmental Defense announced its intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its failure to protect the nation against the health hazards of mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants.   The announcement comes on the same day that EPA published its determination, originally announced on March 15, which will take immediate legal effect, reversing the Agency’s 2000 decision to regulate mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act’s hazardous air pollution control program. 
 
“We are compelled to take legal action because EPA’s rule reflects flawed science, a flawed reading of the law and a failure to protect the nation’s most vulnerable populations from the health hazards of mercury pollution,” said Environmental Defense senior attorney Vickie Patton.

“The EPA’s mercury rule needlessly exposes another generation of children to toxic mercury pollution when cost-effective solutions are at hand,” said Environmental Defense attorney Janea Scott.   

The administrative action taken today by the EPA will have immediate consequences for some dozen or more new coal-fired power plants proposed across the interior western United States.  These facilities, comprising some 8000 megawatts of new coal-fired generation capacity, will be categorically exempted from the Clean Air Act requirement to install the best pollution controls for mercury thereby allowing a new fleet of coal plants to advance without modern mercury control measures.      

Opponents to a stronger mercury emission standard for power plants have argued that the mercury that is bad for human health is coming primarily from other countries, but two recent studies shed light on the potential human health benefits from lowering mercury pollution from U.S. power plants. 

One study, by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, estimated that reducing power plant mercury emissions by about 60 percent could result in up to 5 billion dollars in annual health benefits due to heart attacks prevented, assuming the cardiovascular effects of mercury observed in males who consume non-fatty fish are experienced by the whole U.S. population.   A second study, by doctors at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, estimated the annual health costs of the neurotoxic effects of mercury on children from U.S. power plants to be 1.3 billion dollars.

New Jersey today joined the growing ranks of states taking action to reduce mercury pollution when Governor Richard Codey signed the Mercury Switch Removal Act into law.  The law requires automakers to establish a program to reimburse vehicle dismantlers for removing mercury switches from vehicles before they are recycled.  Environmental Defense praised Governor Codey, state legislators and environmental and business leaders in the state for their efforts to finalize this critical and cost effective bill that will greatly reduce the top source of mercury air emissions in New Jersey.

“New Jersey joins a growing list of states that recognize that cost effective solutions to reducing mercury pollution are available,” said Kevin Mills, Clean Car Campaign director at Environmental Defense.  “We urge all states to follow New Jersey’s path.  Rather than fighting progress in each state, automakers should participate in a national program that will most quickly collect the maximum amount of dangerous mercury.”

More than twenty states have expressed interest in programs that will prevent the release of mercury pollution from scrapped vehicles.  Maine was the first state to pass and implement a complete program.  This month New Jersey and Arkansas passed legislation to build on Maine’s success with similar programs that have higher financial incentives for switch removal.  Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and other states are also working to pass similar legislation.  This unprecedented action by such a diverse group of states demonstrates that a national commitment by U. S. automakers is needed to address this source of mercury pollution.

Providing a national perspective, Environmental Defense was an integral part of a strong New Jersey coalition of environmental organizations and steel, scrap and automobile recycling industries formed in the state to address this issue. 

Environmental Defense works on this issue nationally through the Partnership for Mercury-Free Vehicles, which includes the Steel Manufacturers Association, Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries, Steel Recycling Institute, Automotive Recyclers Association, and the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center. 

One of the originators in 1998 of the High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program, Environmental Defense, generally welcomed today’s commitment from the chemical industry to expand the program’s reach to include “emerging” HPV chemicals.  “Emerging” HPV chemicals did not meet the high-volume threshold of one million pounds annual production when the Challenge began, but were reported to exceed that level in the 2002 Inventory Update under the Toxic Substances Control Act. 

“One of our objectives in launching the HPV Challenge was to lay groundwork for a standard that makes routine the development and public disclosure of at least screening-level hazard data for - at a minimum - all HPV chemicals,” said Environmental Defense senior scientist Richard Denison, Ph.D.  “Today’s announcement represents additional progress toward the longer-term objective of providing the data needed to understand the potential risks of all chemicals in commerce.”  Environmental Defense’s 2004 status report on the Challenge was the first to point out that hundreds of chemicals have reached the million-pound threshold since the launch of the HPV Challenge.  The report is available at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/hpvOrphans.

Environmental Defense also welcomed the announcement that the new initiative will include submission of use and exposure information, both for emerging HPV chemicals and for HPV chemicals already included in the HPV Challenge.  Such information was not called for in the initial Challenge.

Environmental Defense voiced concern, however, about two key ambiguities in the Extended HPV Program.

First, the announcement suggests that sponsors may be allowed to submit incomplete screening-level hazard data sets, based solely on a sponsor’s claim that exposure to a chemical is low or unlikely. 

“If allowed, this would be a major - and, in our view, unacceptable - departure from the current HPV Challenge, which, with very limited exceptions, requires that all data in the internationally-accepted Screening Information Data Set (SIDS) be provided,” said Denison.  “SIDS was developed as the minimum set of data needed to conduct a screening-level hazard assessment for a chemical.  Cutting any corners based on use and exposure information - which is limited in scope, can readily change over time and is unverified - would deny the public’s right to know and constrain sound decision-making.”

Environmental Defense strongly urged the industry to make clear that sponsors are to abide by the provisions of the current Challenge that call for full SIDS data sets to be developed and made public.

Second, the announcement does not guarantee public and EPA review of industry submissions before proposed work is undertaken.  “EPA and public review has been a key element in the HPV Challenge,” said Environmental Defense senior attorney Karen Florini.  “The program announced today does not ensure that this practice will continue or provide a mechanism for doing so.  Industry must work with EPA and other stakeholders to make sure that both EPA and the public can provide timely input into sponsors’ assessment plans and data summaries.”

Environmental Defense welcomed other aspects of the extended program, including industry’s commitment to adhere to EPA Challenge Program guidance and to track and publicly report on the status of all commitments until all work is completed.  “We believe that it is also essential that EPA review final submissions to ensure that submitted data are complete and of sufficient quality,” Denison said.

With respect to the expansion of the program to include submission of use and exposure information, Denison also noted, “The new commitment extends only to providing summary information on use and exposure potential.  While this information will aid in understanding the potential risks of HPV chemicals and prioritizing them for subsequent work, it falls far short of what is needed to fully assess exposure and risk, as industry representatives have acknowledged.” 

“In contrast to the hazard information that has been the focus of the HPV Challenge to date, consensus standards to assure the accuracy and representativeness of exposure information are largely nonexistent.  Absent such standards, independent verification of exposure information is virtually impossible.  To enhance the credibility of their exposure information, sponsors must be fully transparent in describing and qualifying the use and exposure information they provide including by:
-  specifying which companies, facilities, products and activities the information covers, and indicating what fraction of the sponsors’ and overall U.S. production are covered;
-  indicating if information is based on actual measurements, modeling, estimation or judgment; and
-  providing full citations to data sources, and making the underlying studies or reports available on request if not readily available in the public literature.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected tomorrow to finalize the nation’s first rule on mercury pollution.

The following statements can be attributed to Environmental Defense president Fred Krupp.

“The mercury rule allows levels of mercury to increase in the Western U.S., a big step in the wrong direction.  The rule needlessly exposes another generation of children to toxic mercury pollution when cost effective and proven solutions are at hand.” 

“The mercury rule is deeply flawed, allowing mercury levels at individual facilities to increase.  Tomorrow, Environmental Defense will release a report, Mercury on the Horizon, based on EPA’s own methodology and information, that shows that the final rule will allow mercury to increase across the western United States through 2018.”

“All pollutants are not created equal, and what is a good idea for controlling one is a bad idea for others.  There is strong evidence that mercury pollution can deposit close to the source and in local waterways.  Pollution trading programs can cause higher concentrations in areas close to power plants.  It’s a very effective way to deal with smog and acid rain.  But it’s dangerous for toxics like mercury, absent safeguards for the health of all communities.”

“In a complete disregard of the normal scientific process, EPA disbanded its mercury advisory committee and disregarded that group’s analysis.  Had EPA based its proposal on sound science, I am confident the agency could not have substantiated the weak reductions or timing of the mercury rule.” 

“Environmental Defense assesses each rule or law based on its merits.  CAIR deserved strong praise last week, and the mercury rule deserves strong criticism.  It’s deeply flawed.”

(10 March 2005 — Washington, D.C.)  Environmental Defense today praised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for finalizing the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), which requires the greatest reduction in sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from power plant smokestacks in more than a decade.  Nearly three years ago, Environmental Defense approached EPA with a proposal to use administrative powers to curb interstate power plant pollution, using market tools to achieve the pollution reductions. The rule announced today will establish a cap and trade program that will reduce over the next ten years sulfur dioxide pollution by about 73% and oxides of nitrogen pollution by 61% from power plants in East and Midwest states. 

“EPA’s action is a big breath of fresh air for the millions of Americans across the eastern U.S. suffering from unhealthy particulate and smog pollution,” said Environmental Defense president Fred Krupp.  “This rule shows how the nation can efficiently reduce the particulate and smog pollution from power plant smokestacks by carrying out the bedrock human health protections of the Clean Air Act.  We applaud the EPA for taking the biggest step in a decade to cut particulate and smog pollution from power plant smokestacks.” 

The Clean Air Interstate Rule will:
-  Cut millions of tons of particulate and smog forming pollution from power plants across the eastern half of the U.S., reducing sulfur dioxide pollution by about 73% and oxides of nitrogen pollution by 61% by 2015.
-  Prevent an estimated 17,000 deaths, 22,000 non-fatal heart attacks, 700,000 instances of acute bronchitis and exacerbations of asthma, and 2.2 million lost work and school days annually.
-  Result in health benefits that outweigh compliance costs by more than 20 to 1.
-  Bring an estimated 72 counties into compliance with health-based standards for particulate and ozone.
-  Achieve cost-effective pollution cuts by strictly capping emissions and using a market-based allowance trading program to achieve the required pollution reductions

In 2004, EPA determined some 160 million people in 32 states live in areas out of compliance with the federal health-based standards for particulate pollution and ozone smog.   The sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen discharged from power plant smokestacks across the eastern half of the nation contribute to unhealthy particulate pollution and ozone both in-state and in more distant communities.  The sharp pollution cuts required by today’s action will help states across the East restore healthy air.  

EPA’s authority to abate interstate industrial pollution has been affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the federal appellate court with exclusive jurisdiction to review today’s final rule.  

Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 400,000 members.  Since 1967, Environmental Defense has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. 
www.environmentaldefense.org

Today the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reached an impasse on the Clear Skies legislation.   Locked in a 9-9 vote, Senators failed to report the bill out of the Committee.   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to imminently finalize a superior administrative clean air plan, dubbed the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), that would cut soot and smog pollution from power plant smokestacks without weakening long-standing Clean Air Act safeguards.  

“All Americans can breathe a little easier because nine courageous senators withstood a fierce lobbying effort to weaken the Clean Air Act,” said Environmental Defense president Fred Krupp.  “We look forward to EPA swiftly finalizing the Clean Air Interstate Rule.”

“The Clear Skies legislation is a breathtaking attack on our nation’s bedrock clean air protections,” said Environmental Defense legislative director Elizabeth Thompson.  

The nine Senators that voted against the bill include: Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Max Baucus (D-MT), Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Barack Obama (D-IL).

The Clear Skies Bill, which is the single greatest direct attack on the Clean Air Act in the last thirty years, would:

-  Postpone deadlines by up to seven years to restore healthy air for the nation’s largest cities, such as New York City, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia;
-  Delay reductions in toxic mercury pollution from power plants by nearly a decade;
-  Repeal the Clean Air Act requirement for each coal-fired power plant to install the maximum controls to lower mercury pollution;
-  Ignore the pressing problem of global warming;
-  Exempt industrial boilers from air toxic pollution control programs
-  Eliminate safeguards to preserve and enhance air quality in premier national parks; and
-  Gut states’ rights to protect their citizens from upwind power plant pollution. 

The Clean Air Interstate Rule is an immediate and cost-effective way to cut dangerous power plant pollution that contributes to unhealthy soot and smog pollution across the eastern United States without weakening long-standing Clean Air Act protections. 

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), which represents state transportation departments, today joined with the group Environmental Defense, the construction industry, and other organizations to strongly oppose an amendment that would cripple state and local ability to use tolling to meet transportation needs and manage traffic problems.
 
 Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-MN) proposes the amendment to H.R. 3, the highway and transit reauthorization bill expected to come to the House floor tomorrow. The proposed amendment would further restrict states’ and localities’ current tolling authority, restrict tolling on Interstates limit tolling as a revenue option, and eliminate funding for promising non-highway transportation market-incentive pilot projects that help reduce traffic and pollution.
 
“We agree with the President that these decisions need to be made on a state and local level,” said AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley.

“While AASHTO and Environmental Defense have frequently differed on highway-related issues,” Horsley said, “the limitations inherent in Rep. Kennedy’s tolling bill would needlessly restrict an important revenue and traffic-management tool available to state departments of transportation, as they seek to close the gap between pressing transportation needs and available resources,” Horsley said.

Tolling is being explored in several states, including New York, California, and Texas,  in combination with debt financing as a way to advance sorely needed transportation infrastructure projects. Horsley explained that AASHTO’s members believe state transportation officials should have the ability to determine, on a case-by-case basis, where tolling would be most productive and what projects should be financed using toll revenues.

As submitted Tuesday afternoon to the Rules Committee, the Kennedy legislation would allow for new tolls to be levied only to fund additional lane construction or to convert high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. If used for new construction, tolls newly imposed under the amendment would have to be lifted once debt-service was paid and a reserve fund for maintenance and operations had been established.

The Kennedy amendment continues to restrict toll revenues for highway use only, denying agencies the opportunity to fund new improved transit.

“The Kennedy amendment would reverse a growing trend in which states are experimenting with tolls to cut congestion and air pollution,” said Michael Replogle, Transportation Director for Environmental Defense.  “San Diego is using tolls on the I-15 corridor to pay for new express-bus services. New York uses tolls to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for bridges, tunnels and rapid rail transit. Congress should give states the freedom to use these tools to cut congestion and pollution and boost access — not take the tools away.”

“Properly placed transit projects remove a great deal of traffic from overcrowded roads,” Horsley noted. “We need to be able to address the nation’s transportation needs in a holistic, multi-modal way, not piecemeal.”

Replogle said his group supports “accountability and transparency for toll-road projects to mitigate their environmental impacts and traffic growth. We can minimize new pavement by doing more to price and manage the pavement we’ve already got,” Replogle said.

Although AASHTO and Environmental Defense have found common ground on the Kennedy language, Horsley noted that they remain of two minds about a variety of issues within the larger reauthorization bill, HR 3, being moved by House transportation leaders.

The Kennedy approach to date has drawn the opposition of the Tolling Coalition, which includes AASHTO, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), the Associated General Contractors (AGC), the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Authority (IBTTA) and the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

Other members of the Tolling Coalition include Koch Performance Roads Inc., Peter Kiewit and Sons, Nossaman Guthner Knox Elliott LLP, Parsons Brinckerhoff, the Bay Area Council, the Ybarra Group, Ashland Inc., Secretary of Transportation Whittington Clement of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Texas Department of Transportation, the Maryland Department of Transportation, Gabriel Roth, and Robert W. Poole of the Reason Public Policy Institute.

Environmental Defense, a nonprofit dedicated to breakthrough solutions to environmental problems, stated that several other groups have also joined the opposition to the Kennedy tolling amendment. They include the American Public Transportation Association, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, the Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority, the San Diego Association of Governments, Portland Metro in Oregon, the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, Wilbur Smith Associates, and the Surface Transportation Policy Project.