Pressure your senator to vote yes on S 173, the Superfund renewal.
Bush isn't cleaning up his friends' messes ... again.
In other news, Tom Manatos writes to the Pelosi faithful that Kerry leads Bush 56 to 41 among 18-29 year olds.
So register those young ones!
COurtesy of Greenwatch:
The Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
is misleading the public about its commitment to clean up toxic
waste sites, according to a report released late last week by
U.S. PIRG and the Sierra Club.
"The Bush administration is cleaning up fewer toxic waste sites,
underfunding the Superfund program, and forcing taxpayers to pay
for more orphan toxic cleanups. EPA, however, has manipulated
[the] numbers to tell a different story -- one that is
misleading and often false--that the Bush administration is
committed to making polluters pay to clean up the nation's worst
toxic waste sites," the report states.[1]
- While EPA claims it continues to aggressively clean up sites
and put new sites on the National Priority List, the rate of
completed clean-ups has fallen by over 50% under the Bush
administration, from an average of 87 during 1997-2000, to an
average of 40. Site listings have also slowed; the Bush
administration has added an average of 23 sites per year
compared with an average of 30 from 1993-2000, a decline of 23%.
- EPA has stated that funding for the Superfund program has not
decreased. In reality, Superfund funding has dropped by 25% from
2001-2004 compared to 1992-2000. An EPA Inspector General's
report last October said that 29 cleanup projects in 17 states
were insufficiently funded last year.
- EPA has asserted that it remains committed to the polluter
pays principle. It states that polluters continue to pay for
clean-ups at 70% of sites for which responsible parties have
been found (this was the case before 2000 as well). However, 30%
of cleanups at orphan sites are now paid for entirely by
taxpayers, rather than the Superfund trust fund. This is nearly
double the 18% footed by taxpayers prior to the depletion of the
fund. The Bush administration opposes reinstatement of the
industry fees that would restore it.[3]
"Because the administration is opposed to reinstating
Superfund's polluter pays fees, Congress must act to pass S.
173, Senator Boxer and Senator Chafee's renewal bill, to
reinstate them." Wolk told BushGreenwatch that attempts to
attach S. 173 to the federal budget bill could happen in the
next month.[4]
