OUR ENVIRONMENT

WORSENING AIR QUALITY More than 1 in 3 Americans breathes polluted air, 1 leading to 200 deaths a day. 2 Yet Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative would exempt power plants from having to install pollution-controlling devices when they upgrade old plants. The EPA estimates that this change would allow coal-fired plants to emit 520% more toxic mercury, 68% more nitrogen oxide and 225% more sulfur dioxide. 3 DIRTIER, TOXIC WATER President Bush’s appointees changed the Clean Water Act so it no longer applies to up to 60% of our rivers, lakes and streams – permitting industries to pollute these waterways. 4 LOGGING NATIONAL FORESTS AND ANCIENT TREES President Bush has opened millions of acres of our national parks and wilderness to logging, mining,5 and oil drilling,6 and plans timber sales in Alaska’s national forests,7 Oregon’s ancient forests,8 and the Grand Canyon. 9 Bush’s “Healthy Forests Initiative” claims to prevent forest fires by “thinning” 20 million acres of our national forests – an area 10 times greater than the Forest Service’s estimates. 10 CITIZENS NOW PAY FOR CLEAN-UP The Bush administration has shifted the environment-clean-up burden from the polluter to the taxpayer. One in 4 Americans lives within 4 miles of a toxic “Superfund” site. In 1995, taxpayers paid 18% of the cost to clean up toxic waste sites – now we pay all of the cost. 11 MORE VULNERABLE TO OIL PRICE HIKES George Bush’s energy plan virtually ignores renewable energy -- instead giving $20 billion in tax credits and subsidies to coal, oil and nuclear corporations.12 The administration let auto fuel efficiency sink to a 22 yr. low.13 Yet, scientists predict that within 16 years we’ll hit “The Big Rollover” – when demand for oil outstrips capacity, leading to massive, permanent price hikes.14 WORSENING GLOBAL WARMING Global warming is a greater threat than terrorism, says the Pentagon. 15 Though he made a campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming, Bush has refused to set limits on this greenhouse gas and pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, a global-warming prevention treaty16 ratified by 84 countries.17

[1] Juliet Eilperin, "EPA Says Millions Are Inhaling Too-Sooty Air," The Washington Post, June 30, 2004, p. A3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15929-2004Jun29.html [2] See, for example, Professor Joel Schwartz, Harvard University School of Public Health, “Harvesting and Long Term Exposure Effects in the Relations Between Air Pollution and Mortality,” American Journal of Epidemiology, March 1, 2000: “Air pollution kills about 70,000 Americans each year. Air pollution exacerbates heart and lung diseases,” said Schwartz. “You don't get pneumonia from air pollution, but the pollution may make your case of pneumonia much worse–maybe even deadly.” [3] “Bush’s pass for polluters,” The Boston Globe, September 24, 2003, p. A18. [4] Seth Borenstein, “EPA to cut protection of seasonal waterways,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 7, 2003, p. A6; “EPA Chief Leavitt Should Act to Guard Clean-Water Measure,” Tampa Tribune, November 1, 2003, p. 14. [5] Tom Kenworthy, “Stretch of Colo. land becomes battleground,” USA Today, March 5, 2004, p. 6A; “Unwilding the West,” The Baltimore Sun, July 15, 2004, p. 14A. [6] Joby Warrick, Juliet Eilperin, “Old and Gas Hold the Reins in the Wild West; Land-Use Decisions Largely Favor Energy Industry,” The Washington Post, September 25, 2004, p.A1. [7] Wes Allison, “How the Bush administration has fared,” St. Petersburg Times, September 26, 2004, p. 11A. [8] Joe Rojas-Burke, “Timber auction freshens discord over Biscuit plan,” The Oregonian, July 17, 2004, p. A1; Glen Martin, “Bush accord could revive timber wars; Logging to double on federal lands in the Northwest,” The San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, 2004, p. A1. [9] Juliet Eilperin, “National Forests Fall Victim to Firefighting; Plan to Protect Residences Costs Trees, Money,” The Washington Post, June 29, 2004, p. A3. [10] Tom Kenworthy, “Forest-thinning initiative debated,” USA Today (July 2, 2003). http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-07-02-thinning-usat_x.htm. [11] “Refunding the Superfund,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 30, 2003, p. 10A. [12] Susan Milligan, “Energy bill a special-interests triumph,” The Boston Globe, October 4, 2004, p. A1. [13] Danny Hakim, “Plan Offered To Overhaul Fuel Rules For Vehicles,” New York Times, December 23, 2003, p. C1; “Hard luck café,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 6, 2004, p. E-2. [14] L.B. Magoon, “Are We Running Out of Oil?” (U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 00-320). http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of00-320/. [15] Johann Hari, “The global warming crisis: these small steps on climate change fall short of the drastic solutions we need,” The Independent (London), September 15, 2004, p. 33; Mark Townsend and Paul Harris, “Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us,” The Observer (London), February 22, 2004, p. 3. [16] Julian Borger, “Washington diary: Bush disarms the pollution police,” The Guardian (London), November 13, 2003. p. 6. [17] “Kyoto Protocol: Status of Ratification,” United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. http://unfccc.int/essential_background/kyoto_protocol/status_of_ratification/items/2613.php.