Complete list of press releases

President Bush today announced the appointment of Steve Johnson to head the Environmental Protection Agency. 

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

“We look forward to working with Steve Johnson.  His appointment sends a positive signal to EPA employees; he’s the first of their ranks to take the reins at the agency.  His long career at EPA is appreciated.”

“Right off the bat he has the opportunity, with the stroke of a pen, to finalize the long awaited Clean Air Interstate Rule and carry out the administration’s commitment to cleaning our air.  It would be a remarkable and encouraging first accomplishment as our country’s chief environmentalist.”

Environmental Defense, joined by state air pollution control agencies and a broad coalition of environmental leaders, today opposed proposed amendments to the Clean Air Act that would weaken states’ and cities’ ability to cut pollution from the transportation sector.  In what may be the only hearing in Congress on this issue, the House T&I Committee is considering these changes in a hearing today.

“At a time when half the country fails to meet healthy air standards, it makes little sense to undermine the Clean Air Act’s healthy air targets for tailpipe pollution,” said Environmental Defense transportation director Michael Replogle.  “Instead, Congress should give states the tools they need to deliver clean transportation and healthy air.  Cleaning up pollution from cars and trucks is good for health, good for quality of life and good for business.  These proposals would drive up future costs of getting clean air.” 

In testimony today, Environmental Defense is asking Congress to protect the Clean Air Act and give states and cities better tools, encouraging smarter growth, congestion pricing and incentive-based car insurance, that will speed compliance with healthy air targets.  Copies of testimony are available at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/conformity. 

According to the EPA, half of all Americans live in communities that to meet fail basic healthy air standards set by the EPA.   Motor vehicles emit up to half the pollution in major cities and account for an even larger proportion of the health risk from air pollution.  According to EPA data (www.scorecard.org), tailpipe pollution accounts for up to 80% of the air cancer risk in many major cities. 

Congress is considering changes to the 1990 Clean Air Act that requires metropolitan areas’ transportation plans to achieve health-based air quality targets.  Changes proposed in one or both of the Senate or House transportation bills would weaken these requirements and —

• Shorten the time horizon for considering pollution impact - a highway project with 20 years’ worth of pollution would only have to account for the first 10 years’ worth of pollution. 
• Allow excess emissions from motor vehicles (beyond region-wide limits) to continue unchecked for 4 years, making future corrective action more difficult and expensive. 
• Delay and set aside current limits on motor vehicle pollution in metro areas that violate the national ozone pollution standard. According to EPA, during the multi-year delay without limits, motor vehicle emissions could increase by 10% to 50% above the levels now allowed.
• Hamper or expand the ability of states to use market incentives, like congestion pricing and mileage-based car insurance, that can help drivers save money, expand travel choices, and clean the air.  

The Xcel Energy request for bids for 2,500 megawatts of additional electric supply in Colorado, which the company issued on Friday, will include a cost for global warming pollution.  All bids will be evaluated by assessing a cost of $9 per ton of carbon dioxide discharged.   This reflects growing recognition of likely national and state public policy action to regulate global warming pollution.  

“Xcel joins a growing group of major western utilities who use hard dollar figures to estimate the serious risks associated with global warming pollution,” said Vickie Patton, Senior Attorney, Environmental Defense.  “This underscores the disconnect between what is happening on the ground in the West to begin addressing global warming pollution and the inaction in Washington.”  

“This is the first time in Colorado history that global warming pollution has been accounted for in determining our future energy needs,” says John Nielsen, Energy Program Director at Western Resource Advocates.   “This is not only economically and environmentally prudent for Colorado but it is consistent with the establishment of greenhouse gas caps being debated in Congress.” 

Carbon dioxide is the chief pollutant contributing to global warming.  Left unchecked, increasing emissions of global warming pollution pose serious threats to Colorado’s water supply, agriculture, and outdoor recreation economy.

Xcel’s action is consistent with a growing trend across the western United States where companies are accounting for the impacts of global warming in recognition of likely national and state policy action to regulate global warming pollution.  In 2004, Idaho Power’s resource acquisition plan included a $12 per ton cost of carbon dioxide.  Similarly, PacifiCorp, a major western utility serving Wyoming, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California, now assesses an $8 per ton carbon dioxide cost in evaluating new resources.  In December 2004, the California Public Utilities Commission required Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric to assess an $8-$25 per ton cost on carbon dioxide in acquiring new resources.   The California Commission will decide in a future proceeding the precise imputed cost.  

The new Xcel guidelines are available on-line at http://www.xcelenergy.com/docs/corpcomm/2005PSCoDispatchableRFP.pdf.
Xcel has operations in 10 Western and Midwestern states, and is the fourth-largest electricity company in the nation. 

Western Resource Advocates is an environmental law and policy center working in the Interior West to restore essential lands, waters, and habitats, and assure that energy demands are met in environmentally sound and sustainable ways.  www.westernresourceadvocates.org

Environmental Defense today released a report that demonstrated that the proposed Intercounty Connector (ICC) would increase Maryland’s oil dependence and thus increase greenhouse gas pollution.  The report found that, compared to more environmentally friendly and less costly options outlined in a recent study by Environmental Defense and other groups, the ICC would increase fuel demand by 11% within 25 years.  The report can be viewed at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/iccoptions.

“This report is further evidence that there are better options out there than the ICC,” said Environmental Defense transportation director Michael Replogle.  “A combination of toll lanes on existing freeways, improved transit and more balanced growth can give drivers and riders better travel options with less time wasted in traffic and less harm to the environment.  The legislature should reject the Governor’s proposal to undo current curbs on excess debt just to build the ICC and instead consider cheaper alternatives that will help consumers reduce fuel use and, hopefully, trips to the ATM.”

The ICC creates an unnecessary burden of increased fuel use, which heightens America’s dependence on foreign oil and increases greenhouse gas pollution.  Maryland’s transportation fuel use has increased nearly 2% annually over the last decade.  According to the Environmental Defense study, building the ICC will increase regional petroleum fuel demand by 5% over the next 25 years compared to the no-build option and 11% compared to other alternatives.

In contrast, a combination of improvements to existing roads, better transit, and balanced growth studied by Environmental Defense would cut fuel demand by 6% over that same time period.  That translates to a savings of 29 million gallons of petroleum fuels annually — and $31 million less being transferred from the pockets of Maryland consumers to the hands of oil producers.  The corresponding reduction of 260,000 tons of climate change pollution is like removing all of the emissions from 1-month’s operation of the Dickerson Generating Station - the top emitter in Montgomery County.

The proposed ICC also raises energy security risks by increasing oil dependence and it would detract from homeland security by squandering resources that could be applied to improving regional emergency response systems and evacuation management. 

(23 February, 2005 - New York)  A major milestone in online environmental activism was reached this week when www.undoit.org surpassed 400,000 citizen co-sponsors of the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, now under consideration by Congress.  The Act is the first and best proposal for a bi-partisan and comprehensive national policy to cut greenhouse gas pollution.  The www.undoit.org site is the online headquarters for Environmental Defense’s campaign to build support for the Act, which in a 2003 Senate vote secured 43 supporters, a vote that surprised most pundits and built momentum for further votes on global warming. 

“Citizen co-sponsors are building support for action on global warming,” said Environmental Defense’s Ben Smith, manager of online activism.  “By signing the petition, our citizen co-sponsors are speaking out to show that the public supports practical, affordable and innovative solution like the Climate Stewardship Act,” said Smith.

The Environmental Defense site, undoit.org, is anchored by interactive features giving citizens information, news and activism tools they need to convince American political leaders to support the Climate Stewardship Act.  Environmental Defense is working to spread the word about its online petition across the U.S. and around the world. 

“Our activists really deserve all the credit,” said Smith ” They have been driving this grassroots global warming campaign both online and in their local communities.”

Citizen co-sponsors have helped generate petition signatures online by forwarding emails to friends and family.  In addition, many people have printed out the petition, getting signatures the old-fashioned way — by bringing it to work, church, their neighbors, grocery stores, and more.  In response to a recent email from Environmental Defense, activists even brought copies of the petition to Super Bowl parties across the country.

The Climate Stewardship Act would implement an innovative and affordable market-based solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions the U.S.  An independent M.I.T. analysis puts the low annual estimated cost of the measure at $15-20 per household in 2010.  But many experts agree that the cost of delaying action on climate change would be much greater in the future.

Brazil President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva today announced the creation of two forest mega-reserves in the Amazon state of Para, the scene of the assassinations of 73 year old American Nun Dorothy Stang and three union activists since February 12.  The reserves would link together already protected Amazon forests to create the world’s largest tropical forest reserve.

“What’s at issue here is the future of the Amazon,” said Environmental Defense anthropologist Stephan Schwartzman.  “The criminal oligarchs of Para; have explicitly challenged any form of government authority in this region.  It’s critical that the state and federal governments show that they intend to govern, and protecting the Terra do Meio is a very good start.”

The announcement today of the creation of the Terra do Meio (Land in the Middle) reserve, which will cover about 9.8 million acres, in the National Park and Ecological Station, will be complemented next week by the protection of an additional 7.4 million acres of sustainable development reserves, largely for traditional forest communities.  The protection plan signals the government’s intention to exert control over one of the most lawless and violent regions in the Amazon frontier.

Land and illegal logging mafias, who organized widespread violent protests over suspension of logging permits earlier this month, are presumed responsible for the recent murders.  Stang was shot to death just as Environment Minister Marina Silva held her first public meeting in a recently created Extractive Reserve in the state.  Land grabbers, or “grileiros,” oppose the protected areas because creating them prevents the legalization of illegal land claims.  Illegal occupation and subdivision of public lands has increased dramatically since the government announced its intention to pave the nearby Cuiaba; - Santarem highway, or BR 163, the region’s major soy and cattle export corridor.  The announcement to pave the road has drastically driven up land values around it. 

Creating the proposed mosaic of reserves in the Terra do Meio will do more than just protect an area about the size of Maine, which is currently suffering heavy invasion from land grabbers.  The reserves will also link two existing groups of indigenous territories, resulting in the creation of the largest continuous corridor - nearly 62 million acres, about the size of the United Kingdom - of protected tropical forest in the world.

The proposal for creation of the reserve mosaic was originally formulated by the grassroots Movement for the Development of the Transamazon and the Xingu (MTDX), a coalition of small farmers along the Transamazon highway.  The grassroots organizations promote sustainable family farming as the basis for regional development, and view uncontrolled frontier expansion driven by illegal occupation of public lands and expulsion of forest peoples as a threat to their security. The farmers also fear that more deforestation, as soy farming and cattle ranching expand, will reduce rainfall and cut crop yields.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a landmark settlement with Environmental Defense, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), and the state of North Carolina that compels EPA to take action on a request by North Carolina to address upwind power plant pollution that contributes to North Carolina’s unhealthy air quality.  The settlement, combined with the power plant clean up standards under the near-final Clean Air Interstate Rule, shows that EPA can clean up harmful power plant pollution now under the existing Clean Air Act.  Not only is the misguided “Clear Skies” legislation unnecessary, but it would severely curtail the rights of states such as North Carolina to protect citizens from upwind smokestack pollution. 

“The Clean Air Act is the foundation for this landmark settlement that charts a course to clean up high-polluting power plant smokestacks across the Southeast and Midwest,” said Michael Shore, Environmental Defense senior air policy analyst.  “This settlement and the near-final Clean Air Interstate Rule put the nation on the right road to clean up unhealthy power plant pollution, while the Clear Skies legislation is simply the wrong road to follow.”

“North Carolina has worked long and hard to improve the air quality in its own backyard, and the leadership of Attorney General Roy Cooper and Gov. Mike Easley deserves applause.  EPA should follow North Carolina’s lead and finalize federal rules to clean up dirty power plants.  EPA’s promised and long overdue Clean Air Interstate Rule can be strengthened and finalized with the stroke of a pen,” said Shore.

Section 126 of the federal Clean Air Act grants states the right to petition the EPA Administrator to control pollution from upwind power plants that contribute significantly to unhealthy air in the receiving states.  The settlement announced today is the result of a “good neighbor” petition filed by North Carolina in March 2004 asking EPA to cut sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen power plant pollution in 13 upwind states.  EPA failed to act on North Carolina’s petition by the Clean Air Act deadline, and SELC, on behalf of Environmental Defense, and the state North Carolina took separate legal actions under the Clean Air Act to compel EPA action. 

“Right now, the air in nearly one-third of North Carolina’s counties fails to meet the basic standards for human health,” said Marily Nixon, SELC air quality attorney.  “This settlement will allow us to protect the health of North Carolina’s 8 million citizens by cleaning up pollution coming from power plants in 13 neighboring states.”

The settlement was filed as a consent decree in federal district court in North Carolina and must undergo a 30-day public comment period before it can be given final approval by the court.

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. ww.environmentaldefense.org

Founded in 1986, SELC is the only non-profit regional organization dedicated to protecting the native forests, wetlands, air and water quality, wildlife habitat and rural landscapes in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.  SELC works in partnership with more than 100 diverse groups on legal advocacy, policy reform and public education to achieve lasting environmental protections. www.SouthernEnvironment.org

Environmental Defense today called the decision by Senator Inhofe (R-OK) to postpone the Environment and Public Works committee vote on the Clear Skies bill a clear signal that many members of the committee understand that the bill is not about emissions reductions but about eliminating numerous public health protections in the Clean Air Act.  Environmental Defense continues to urge committee members to recognize that the bill is not necessary because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) already has a plan, the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), to cut power plant emissions.

“It’s hard to dream up a more damaging assault on the quality of air in America than Clear Skies,” said Environmental Defense legislative director Elizabeth Thompson.  “The delayed committee vote sends a message that many members recognize that Clear Skies is not about clearing the air, but about clearing a path for polluters.”

“Let’s stop debating an unnecessary bill that would gut the Clean Air Act and get back to the business of improving air quality and protecting public health,” said Thompson.

The Clear Skies Bill, which is the single most 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;
• Weaken the long-standing requirement for new coal-fired power plants to install the best available pollution control technology;
• 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 CAIR 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.  A protective CAIR could prevent up to 16,000 premature deaths and 1 million asthma attacks in children annually.

Environmental Defense praised the New Jersey Senate today for passing a bill that will greatly reduce mercury pollution from the state’s top source.  The law will prevent mercury in vehicles from escaping into the environment by providing vehicle dismantlers with a cash incentive to remove mercury switches from vehicles before they are scrapped.

“New Jerseyans couldn’t have asked for a better gift this Valentine’s Day,” said Kevin Mills, Clean Car Campaign director at Environmental Defense.  “The recycling of scrap vehicles in steel mills is the top source of mercury air emissions in New Jersey, and this bill provides a cost effective plan for addressing that source.”

The bill, which now needs the signature of the Governor to be put into action, would require auto manufacturers to reimburse the vehicle dismantlers and the state for removing the switches.  Vehicle dismantlers will receive $2.00 per switch, and the state will receive 25 cents per switch to cover the cost of administering the switch removal program.  Environmental Defense now calls on the Governor to swiftly sign the bill into law. 

“This program provides auto makers with a cost effective solution to rectify a dangerous design choice they made despite the availability of cheap, equally effective and environmentally benign alternatives,” said Mills.  “States like New Jersey and Maine are lighting the way for an urgently needed national system to collect the nearly 100 million mercury switches in vehicles still traveling the roads today.”

Mercury switches are the nation’s largest manufacturing source of toxic mercury.  Since automakers began installing mercury switches in autos over 30 years ago, the mercury from these devices has been released into the environment as vehicles are scrapped at the end of their useful life.  The auto industry used an estimated 197 tons of mercury in vehicle switches in the U.S. and continued to use mercury switches - - saving only pennies per switch - - for many years after promising to switch to mercury free alternatives. 

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 to address this issue.  Environmental Defense works on this issue under their Clean Car Campaign 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.  Coordinated by Environmental Defense and the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center, the Clean Car Campaign is a national campaign promoting a clean revolution in the motor vehicle industry.

Contact: Stephanie Fried, Environmental Defense, 808-262-7128
                                                                                  
(February 10, 2005 - Honolulu, Hawaii) The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) used federal funds to campaign to dismantle the largest protected area in U.S. jurisdiction, the 84 million acre Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) Coral Reef Reserve, according to Paul Koberstein, award-winning journalist at the Cascadia Times. Today Koberstein received the prestigious Oakes Award, presented by a distinguished panel of Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-winning journalists for his investigation of Wespac.  Environmental Defense praises Koberstein’s efforts and a continued push to protect the NWHI. 

Koberstein’s investigation highlights the political connections of Kitty Simonds, Wespac’s sole Executive Director for the past 29 years. He also reports that two individuals, Jim Cook and Sean Martin, who have long held sway on Wespac not only own vessels caught poaching lobster in the NWHI, but as large-scale sellers of commercial fishing equipment have financially benefited from Wespac rule changes that maintain or increase fishing traffic.

“This scandal shows the pressing need for a thorough federal investigation of Wespac’s activities and use of public funds,” said Environmental Defense scientist Stephanie Fried.  “It’s critical that strong protections remain in place for the NWHI.”

“The Northwestern Islands are a nursery for fisheries in the main Hawaiian Islands where thousands fish,” said fisher Louis Agard, former head of the longliner Ahi Fishing Boat Association, bottomfish fisher and lobster trapper. “Protecting the distant islands as a public trust is necessary to rebuild fisheries in the main islands, to help local fishers who depend on them.”

The NWHI Reserve was established in one of the greatest outpourings of public participation and support for a natural resource decision ever.  Fishers, divers, Native Hawaiian leaders and scientists joined together, testifying at over 30 hearings in the last four years to protect this special place.

Yet Wespac recently launched its own type of “public hearings” in late January. Unlike the previous federal NWHI hearings, Wespac did not broadly inform the public in advance. It claimed to file a federal register announcement, but did not do so. Wespac sent out 6,000 advance mailings to a private list, but only ran public newspaper announcements a few days prior to the start of hearings.  It also blanketed radio stations with ads falsely claiming that Native Hawaiians would lose their fishing rights. It made unauthorized use of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) logo and claimed NOAA co-sponsorship of their hearings — statements they were forced to retract at the hearings.

Over 100 citizens showed up at the Honolulu hearing where Wespac proposed NWHI coral harvesting, reef fishing, the re-opening of a crashed lobster fishery and the expansion of bottomfishing in feeding grounds of the highly endangered Hawaiian monk seal.    At the hearing, Wespac repeatedly misled the audience, claiming that the NWHI were “not supplying” bottomfish to the main islands, despite years of their own published reports showing otherwise.

www.oceansalive.org

(10 February, 2005 - - Washington)  Environmental Defense today praised the re-introduction of the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act in the U.S. Senate.  The Act is the first and best proposal for a bi-partisan and comprehensive national policy to cut greenhouse gas pollution. 

“The Climate Stewardship Act calls for a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas pollution, taking on the problem of global warming in a strong and sensible way.  It’s time for the U.S. to take the lead in solving this global problem,” said Environmental Defense president Fred Krupp.  “This market-based approach will foster the innovation needed to cut greenhouse gas pollution.”

An independent M.I.T. analysis puts the low annual estimated cost of the measure at $15-20 per household in 2010.  The Climate Stewardship Act was last voted on in October 2003 when it secured 43 votes, sending a clear message that support is growing in Congress for sensible, effective solutions to reduce greenhouse gas pollution nationwide.

“Under this responsible plan, about a nickel a day helps keep global warming away.  At a low estimated cost of less than 5-and-a-half cents a day per household in 2010, it gives Senators an easy choice between doing something or doing nothing about climate change,” said Krupp.  “Senators should support this moderate and affordable first step to protect our country and our children from greenhouse gas pollution.”

“The Climate Stewardship Act is the best way for the U.S. to address global warming today and minimize the risk of serious economic disruption tomorrow,” said Steve Cochran, Environmental Defense director of Strategic Communications. 

The MIT study is available at web.mit.edu/globalchange/www/MITJPSPGC_Rpt97.pdf.

(February 7, 2005 - Washington) Environmental Defense today praised the Bush Administration’s proposal to reform farm subsidies in the FY 2006 Budget Request.

“Subsidy reform that helps more farmers and ranchers is long overdue, and we applaud the president for addressing the issue,” said Environmental Defense farm policy campaign director Scott Faber.

“Simply put, our farm policy is broken,” Faber said. “It doesn’t help most farmers, hurts many farmers at home and abroad, harms the environment and fails to sufficiently reward stewardship and economic innovation. Congress should take this chance to overhaul our farm programs to help more farmers and ranchers succeed, comply with our trade agreements and protect the environment.”

Only one-third of America’s farmers are even eligible for farm subsidies, most of which flow to the largest, most successful producers of feed grains, rice and cotton. Of all eligible farmers, 80 percent receive less than $2,000 a year.

“The current system invites retaliatory tariffs that frequently fall on the producers of livestock, fruit and vegetables and other farm products are not eligible for subsidies,” Faber said.  “Many of our farms get none of the benefits of subsidy programs but face many of the costs.”

Farm subsidies also harm the environment by encouraging many farmers to grow crops on sensitive lands, like wetlands and grasslands, and by encouraging the conversion of rangeland and pastureland to crops that require more water and chemicals. Furthermore, our farm programs do not sufficiently encourage stewardship.

“Because most farm spending flows to large row crop farmers, four out of five farmers are rejected when they offer to share the cost of environmental improvements,” Faber said. “In 2003, USDA turned away thousands of farmers in 2003 offering to restore more than 700,000 acres of wetlands. That’s more wetlands than the entire nation loses in a decade.”

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.

A new study shows that changes to Colorado’s clean air rules will increase air pollution and health problems. The report, titled Stop The Rollbacks: Cleaner, Healthier Air For Colorado, finds that Colorado could see over 25,000 more tons of air pollution each year if the changes are approved by the state legislature. The coalition that released the report - including American Lung Association of Colorado and Environmental Defense - is calling on the legislature to reject these rollbacks.

“These changes will result in more air pollution, which means that more people might suffer from lung disease illnesses in Colorado,” said Manisha Blair of the American Lung Association of Colorado.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified the entire Front Range region from Castle Rock to Fort Collins as failing to meet federal health-based air quality standards for smog. Numerous studies in recent years have linked smog levels to school absences, increased asthma rates, and long-term lung damage in children.

“Colorado should be strengthening - not weakening - clean air safeguards to protect children from harmful summertime smog, to clean up Denver’s brown cloud, and to cut the haze that pollutes Colorado’s scenic vistas,” said Cindy Copeland of Environmental Defense.

The new rules were initially approved last year by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC), and now go to the state legislature for final consideration. New Source Review has long required that aging, high-polluting industrial facilities upgrade their air pollution control equipment when they expand operations and increase pollution in surrounding neighborhoods.

Several Colorado local governments opposed the Commission’s adoption of the changes due to concerns about the adverse impacts on local air quality. These governments included: Boulder County, Denver City and County, Broomfield City and County, Aspen, San Juan Basin, San Miguel County, and Telluride. The Pueblo City-County Health Department recently joined this coalition.

“The state legislature should throw out these rollbacks,” said Justin Dawe, an air quality analyst with Environment Colorado. “Colorado is working hard to come up with a plan to meet its air quality responsibilities, but these rollbacks undermine that effort by the rest of the state.”

Today the journal Environmental Health Perspectives released a new report linking exposure to fine particle air pollution with atherosclerosis, or thickening of the arteries.  With more hearings scheduled this week on the Clear Skies legislation, which would rollback present clean air laws, this study provides one more example of why we need to strengthen, not weaken air pollution protections. 

“Studies have linked air pollution to premature death from heart disease for over a decade,” said Dr. John Balbus, physician and head of the health program for Environmental Defense.  “This study shows again that women and men are suffering from current exposures to fine particle pollution and points to the need for swift and sure reductions in fine particle pollution.”

Today’s study, which can be viewed at http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/press/012805.html, links fine particle pollution exposure over the long-term to thickening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) in the neck.  This type of chronic thickening of the blood vessels can set the stage for sudden or gradual blockage of blood flow.

This study examines the impacts of chronic exposure to particulate matter and is coupled with recent studies that contributed to experts’ understanding of how acute exposure to fine particle pollution can trigger heart attacks.  Acute exposure to fine particle pollution leads to inflammation of the blood vessels that can cause blood clotting and acutely blocked arteries. 

Major reports are also expected this week from the EPA on regulatory options for PM2.5 and the state of the science on ozone effects.