Bush Administration Seeks To Gut Environmental Right-To-Know Law

[JABBS]

In its latest move to benefit corporate bottom lines, the Bush Administration is proposing gutting the nation's enviornmental right-to-know law.

The rule would mean thousands of companies nationwide would no longer have to provide the public with details of toxic chemicals they release into the environment. Under existing rules, facilities that release 500 or more pounds of toxic substances each year must reveal how much of each chemical is emitted into the air, discharged into waterways and taken to landfills or other disposal sites. Under the EPA proposal, that threshold would be raised to 5,000 pounds.

Under the administraton's proposal, 922 communities would lose all information from the the national Toxics Release Inventory detailing emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency will make a final decision on the proposal next year, after a public comment period that ends Jan. 13.

Savings to corporate America: $650 million.

Is it worth it? Only to corporate America.

"In individual neighborhoods, the difference between 500 pounds and 5,000 pounds is significant," Idell Hansen, Washington state's director of hazardous waste and toxics reduction, told the Los Angeles Times.

"If the proposed changes are adopted, EPA will be issuing a permit to poison," added Jan Pendlebury, director of the New Hampshire chapter of the National Environmental Trust, in an interview with the Concord (N.H.) Monitor.

Eighty-one local and national environmental groups appealed to Congress in a letter to urge the EPA to leave the inventory unchanged.

***

Kim Nelson, an assistant administrator at the EPA, said the companies that would benefit from the proposal are "tiny, tiny businesses, mom-and-pop shops operating on Main Street, that, in an aggregate, amount to less than 1% of the emissions in this country."

But like so many things the Bush Administration says about the enviornment, Nelson's words are empty conservative spin.

The agency's electronic inventory shows that many of the affected companies are not "mom-and-pop shops operating on Main Street," but instead the likes of American Gasket & Rubber, Clorox Products, Foamex, Illinois Oil Products, Langley Air Force Base, Pepsi Bottling Group, Raytheon and U.S. Gypsum Co. Worse, many of the affected companies have facilities near residential areas.

***

Congress established the Toxics Release Inventory in 1986, after a leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, in 1984 killed thousands of nearby residents who were unaware that potentially deadly chemicals were used at the facility. The 21st anniversary of that disaster is today.

Under the program, approximately 26,000 industrial facilities report information about any of the 650 chemicals in the program. Environmentalists credit the program with a 60 percent reduction of the disposals or releases of 299 chemicals nationally.

***

This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[texpatriot2004]

1. EVIL BASTARDS! K & R nm

[Erika]

2. Condemning our children to ill health and early death

It is already known that inner city kids are developing asthma at alarming rates.

To Bush, it's the $ for corporatism.

He better remember St.Peter is there for him also. Let him explain his actions.

[laruemtt]

3. K & R n/t

[Angry Girl]

4. This have anything to do with this article on toxins in the newborn?

Study finds hundreds of toxic chemicals in umbilical cords of newborns
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5535190&mesg_id=5535190

[Irreverend IX]

5. "mom-and-pop shops operating on Main Street"

What the hell kind of Orwellian newspeak is this?

[JABBS]

6. they make it sound like the neighborhood candy store

is going to benefit from not have to report about taking out the garbage. Don't believe the spin. I saw the list for Illinois -- available from Illinois PIRG -- and it's all companies. Sure, some of the companies are local or regional chemical companies, but none of the ones affected would be confused with Uncle Al's Toffee Shop.

This is the administration that gave us the Clean Skies Initiative, which was to allow more emissions in the air, and the Healthy Forests Initiative, which allowed for clearing of mature trees.

The Bush Administration policy is always to help their corporate friends first, then slap a happy face on it and try to convince the faithful to support something not in their best interest. Unfortunately, it works well, in large part because of the conservative noise machine.

[Bridget Burke]

7. In Texas, the public is not allowed to know what plants process...

This doesn't have anything to do with "releases." Apparently, the local HazMat teams don't know, either.

Big petrochemical plants have their own crews for dealing with leaks, fires & explosions. (Not that they're big on safety. The BP plant in Texas City is huge & has a dreadful record. Have no fear--James Baker III is leading the investigation!)

But we've got a fair number of small companies that deal with potentially hazardous materials. It's not immediately evident to the HazMat groups whether fires should be allowed to burn out or fought. And whether people in the vicinity should shelter in place or run for their lives.

Of course, this rule was put in place to stop terrorists. Since it happened under Governor Bush, you can see that he's been using that excuse for a long time.

[JABBS]

8. Texas is a leader in so many things ...

Education, environmental concerns, cold weather ...

Way to go Gov. G.W.!!!