Too Expensive To Protect Our Kids' Brains?

It's beginning to look like Illinois' biggest mercury polluters are going to argue that protecting children's brains and nervous system is too expensive for them. See this story in today's Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0601060256jan06,1,7313509.story

If so then they must only care about their own pocketbooks, because the rest of us are the ones paying because they haven't cleaned up their act. A Mt. Sinai study released last year estimated that mercury contamination costs at least $8.7 billion annually in health care costs and decreased productivity due to kids brains and nervous systems being damaged by mercury. (See http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/press/030205.html)

Also, what's the impact on Illinois' fishing and tourism industry due to the health warning now attached to every river and lake in Illinois due to mercury pollution? How many more people would spend their vacation and recreation dollars fishing in Illinois if it were safe to feed their catch to their families?

Most public health problems are difficult to solve because there are usually many contributing factors that are hard to get a handle on. This is a case where most of the Illinois mercury pollution comes out of 22 smokestacks, and the technology to shut most of it off is readily available.

It's time to do it.



Governor Blagojevich announcing his mercury reduction plan Thursday at Navy Pier in Chicago.

Blagojevich Proposes Deep Cuts In Mercury Pollution

Governor Blagojevich today is announcing a strong proposal to require Illinois’ coal-fired power plants to install pollution controls to reduce the levels of toxic mercury they put into Illinois’ air and water. Blagojevich’s plan would require Illinois coal plants to reduce mercury pollution by 90% by 2009.

The proposal will not only protect the health of Illinois children, it will also set an example for America to follow in addressing a major public health problem.

Mercury from coal-fired power plants ends up in lakes, rivers, and oceans, and certain species of fish accumulate dangerous levels of the toxic metal in their muscle tissue. When people eat these fish, they are exposed to potentially harmful levels of mercury. The Illinois Department of Public Health has issued a warning about the dangers of eating large predator fish from all Illinois waters due to statewide mercury pollution.

The Bush Administration has proposed substantially weaker pollution controls that could allow Illinois coal plants to delay or even entirely avoid installing pollution controls. Governor Blagojevich and Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit against the Bush Administration’s proposal in April of 2005.

Mothers and women hoping to have children shouldn't have to worry that by eating fish or feeding it to their kids they could be doing permanent damage to a child's brain. The technology to protect our kids is available, affordable, and it’s time we put it on these smokestacks. Will Illinois power plants will heed Gov. Blagojevich's call to clean up their act and protect our children's health?

Obviously we're not betting on that. We expect a full attack on the proposal when the Illinois Pollution Control Board takes it up in the weeks and months ahead.

We Saved the Arctic

The Arctic National Widlife Refuge survived its closest brush yet with becoming an industrial site sacrificed to our voracious oil appetite and lack of an energy policy when the Senate majority fell four votes short of cutting off a filibuster to protest adding the drilling to the must-pass Defense budget bill.

Senator Durbin played a key role in organizing opposition, and gave one of the final (and best) speeches during a dramatic floor debate. Senator Obama was an early signer to a letter last week organized by Washington Senator Maria Cantwell protesting adding the drilling provisions to this bill. Since the Defense Department budget bill must pass, it rapidly became a big expensive Christmas tree loaded with non-Pentagon related provisions. Drilling the Arctic would have been a very ugly ornament indeed.

This is a big victory for the national environmental movement at a time when it needed one badly. It is a testament to all the work done over the decades to show and tell Americans about the importance and beauty of this place that most of us will never see, but want to know that it will always be wild.

So to all of you in Illinois who did your part in this historic battle, you have something else to celebrate this holiday season. If you wrote your letters, made your calls, came to a rally, helped elect either or both of our two fine Senators, this is your victory, and you certainly deserve it.

Happy holidays to you, and to the polar bears, caribou, and others that call the Refuge home.

CSPAN Might Actually Be Exciting Wednesday

Having failed to win passage of Arctic drilling through the Budget process,
Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) has inserted his proposal to open up the Arctic
Refuge in the Defense spending bill. Stevens is holding the wildly popular
DOD approps bill hostage in order to force his controversial drilling
legislation through Congress.

A growing cadre of Senators has voiced objection to Stevens latest gambit.
Because Arctic drilling was not part of the DOD bill sent over from the
House, nor the bill passed by the Senate, the measure is "outside the scope
of the conference" under senate Rules. On Wednesday, Senators Cantwell,
Reid, Kerry, Durbin, Lieberman and others will raise a point of order
against the Stevens drilling provision. The parliamentarian will agree
that Arctic is non- germane and then Stevens will have to win a vote to
overturn the ruling of the Chair. He will have to secure 51 votes, or a
majority of those present to prevail. Already 47 senators have lent their
name to a letter objecting to Stevens abuse of senate rules including 5
Republicans.

If Stevens wins a vote to overturn the Senate rules and keep Arctic
drilling part of the DOD approps bill, drilling opponents have committed
to filibuster the legislation and force Stevens back to conference to strip
the provision before a final DOD funding bill passes the Senate. The onus
is on Stevens to produce 60 votes to support his overturn of the Senate
rules. Despite the nervousness about the idea of filibustering this
important bill, this is a vote we can win!

Tell Senators Durbin and Obama to Stay Strong!

Please urge them to:

1. support efforts to strip this language from the Defense Funding bill and
2. filibuster the legislation if necessary to ensure that Arctic drilling
does not become law.

Connect to their offices by calling 1-888-8-WILDAK

A Last-Ditch Attempt To Drill the Arctic

The word on Capitol Hill is that Arctic drilling has been dropped from the budget bill and attached to the defense appropriations bill instead. The last-minute tactic is a cynical move by the pro-drilling lobby, particularly as this is the spending bill that funds our troops in wartime. Don't let them get away with it: Call the Capitol Switchboard now at (202) 224-3121.

Senators Durbin and Obama have been steadfast in their opposition to sacrificing OUR Refuge for oil company profits. We need their help one more time, even as the Senate leadership links Arctic drilling to the same bill that funds our veterans and armed forces. Tell them to oppose this outrage.

New Tribune Series on "The Mercury Menace"

Today begins a special series in the Tribune on how mercury-contaminated fish are widely available at supermarkets around Chicagoland.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/broadband/chi-mercury-htmlstory,1,3096866.htmlstory?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

Hopefully Gov. Blagojevich will soon announce strict limits on power plant pollution to help solve this problem.

IDNR Nixes Banner Mine Proposal!

The IDNR has denied an essential permit for a proposed strip mine near the Illinois River, and between the Banner Marsh and Rice Lake wildlife refuges.














Banner Marsh


The mine proposal could resurface, but this is great news for local residents and the Illinois River. Congratulations and thank you to the residents of Banner, the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club (led in this victory by the indefatigable Joyce Blumenshine), Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, who championed this cause as part of his advocacy for the Illinois River watershed, and of course the IDNR for making the right call.