Privatize the EPA?
Concern over mercury levels in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat is not simply a liberal advocacy issue. It is a broad public health issue. No matter whether your pregnant wife listens to Rush or to NPR, if there is a high level of mercury in her blood, it can cause brain damage in her child.
The amount of mercury produced by coal plants and the effects it has on the environment and us are scientific questions, not political questions (as if that needs stating!). That's why the EPA has a team of researchers who report the facts to the administration whenever policy needs to be formed.
But times have changed, as the LA Times is reporting:
Political appointees in the Environmental Protection Agency bypassed agency professional staff and a federal advisory panel last year to craft a rule on mercury emissions preferred by the industry and the White House, several longtime EPA officials say.
The EPA staffers say they were told not to undertake the normal scientific and economic studies called for under a standing executive order. At the same time, the proposal to regulate mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants was written using key language provided by utility lobbyists.
The Bush administration has said that the proposed rule would cut mercury emissions by 70% in the next 15 years, and is tied to the president's "Clear Skies" initiative. Critics say it would delay reductions in mercury levels for decades at a risk to public health, while saving the power and coal industries billions of dollars.
Studies designed to address such questions are the ones that were not conducted.
EPA veterans say they cannot recall another instance when the agency's technical experts were cut out of developing a major regulatory proposal.
It is worth noting from the article how many of the veteran EPA staff complaining about this are Republican. Don't forget that the EPA began under Nixon.
The administration chose a process "that would support the conclusion they wanted to reach," said John A. Paul, a Republican environmental regulator from Ohio who co-chaired the EPA-appointed advisory panel.
He said its 21 months of work on mercury was ignored.
[snip]
Russell E. Train, a Republican who headed the EPA during the Nixon and Ford administrations, said: "I think it is outrageous. The agency has strayed from its mission in the past three years."
21 months of work down the drain. That's another form of government waste we shouldn't lose sight of -- the dismissal of professional research by experts (whether scientists or intelligence analysts) because it doesn't harmonize with Bush Administration political goals
And how does the Bush EPA carefully craft policy on such an important issue, if it doesn't bother with the research?
The administration's proposed mercury rule, published in the Federal Register in December, contains numerous paragraphs of verbatim language supplied by two separate industry advocates.
Several complete paragraphs were lifted from three memos provided by Latham & Watkins, a national law firm whose clients include large coal-fired utility plants.
Both Holmstead and Wehrum are former Latham & Watkins attorneys.
More seriously, according to critics, the proposal also includes exact language provided by West Associates, a research and advocacy group representing 20 power and transmission companies in California and other Western states.
Perhaps it's time to end the charade and privatize the EPA.
[Link via the invaluable Cursor]
11:57:52 PM 
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