Subject: Mercury: make sure people know

Dear MoveOn member,

Thanks for being one of 180,000 MoveOn members
who've told the EPA not to delay a scheduled
cleanup of toxic mercury by over ten years. Although
this is a scandalous attempt by the Bush
administration to protect its friends in the energy
industry at the expense of our children's health, the
mercury issue is not getting much media attention.

Our papers need to know that mercury pollution
from power plants has a direct impact on our
families and should be covered closely. Please take a
few minutes today to write a letter to the editor
of your local paper. Filling the nation's
editorial pages with letters from concerned citizens is
a great way to help keep the pressure on the Bush
administration to protect us from mercury
pollution.

Writing a letter to the editor doesn't actually
take very long -- you can do it in ten minutes or
less. A letter that's short, sweet, and to the
point has the best chance of getting published.

We've added some tips and some talking points
below. Once you've written, please let us know at:

http://www.moveon.org/mercuryltes.html?id=2470-3261555-QspU.FOy39jnfkqQr5YOwA

Even though public comment has been
overwhelmingly against delaying mercury cleanup, we have seen
in similar situations that 99% negative public
feedback is not always enough. We need to shine a
very bright media spotlight on this issue. Not
long ago, front page media attention to a proposal
to weaken protection against arsenic pollution in
our drinking water shamed the Bush administration
into doing the right thing.

Working together, we can make sure that mercury
emissions are cleaned up as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,

- Carrie, Joan, Noah, Peter, and Wes
The MoveOn.org team
Thursday, March 18th, 2004

RESOURCES FOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I. Tips

II. Talking Points

I. Tips on how to get your letter published:

- Your own words, written from the heart, are
always best.

- Brevity is the soul of wit.

- The key to publication is to pounce on
something specific you've
seen in the newspaper -- anything that seems
related to you.

- Be sure to include your name and address, and
especially your phone
number when submitting your letter. Editors
need to call you to
verify authorship before they can print your
letter. They don't
print your phone number.

- Your newspaper's letters page should give you
an email address or
fax number to use, or you can try this
website:

http://congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/

- Please let us know when you've sent your
letter by going to:

http://www.moveon.org/mercuryltes.html?id=2470-3261555-QspU.FOy39jnfkqQr5YOwA


II. Talking points

There is no uncertainty about the danger to the
environment, and to humans, emanating from power
plant mercury pollution.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimate that 8% of women of childbearing age in
the U.S. have mercury levels in their blood that
are unsafe.

The EPA itself reports that 630,000 infants are
born annually who are at risk for learning
disabilities. Mercury is a toxic metal that can cause
severe neurological and developmental problems in
unborn fetuses and young children.

The EPA and forty-three states have now issued
advisories warning people, especially women and
children, to avoid or limit eating local fish
because of mercury. This table shows the advisories
that are in effect where you live

http://www.moveon.org/mercury/table.pdf

Source: Clear the Air coalition.

The Bush administration proposes to not regulate
mercury as a dangerous poison, but instead to
allow power plants to emit mercury pollution ten
years longer than is necessary.

The EPA was initially planning to require power
plants to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent
by 2008.

In December, the EPA announced a mercury plan
that will expose our children to far more mercury,
for far longer, than what the agency has said is
achievable and cost-effective. The proposal also
is less stringent than was recommended by the
majority of the EPA's own panel of experts who spent
more than two years working on this problem.

The EPA now proposes to regulate mercury from
utility companies as if it were a non-hazardous
pollutant, demanding only a 30 percent emission
reduction and allowing some sources to avoid controls
entirely by buying pollution "credits."

When plants are not forced to curb pollution but
can buy pollution credits, it increases the
chances that there will be communities where mercury
pollution is more prevalent.

The proposal also would give polluters at least
15 years to make the reductions rather than the
three years currently required by law.


The Bottom Line:

The EPA must protect our children by making all
power plants install controls to stop mercury
pollution by 2008.

More information can be found on MoveOn's Mercury
Resources page:

http://www.moveon.org/mercury/mercury-resources.html
_______________

This is a message from MoveOn.org.