It baffles me that the Dems aren't invoking the environment as a campaign issue when they've got so much on the Cheney-Bush administration that would alarm anyone paying attention. Even Frank Luntz knows it's a hot issue waiting to be exploited. But . . . nothing. At least not tonight.
For starters, Sen. Edwards might have brought up mercury in the debate, which the Clinton administration regulated as a hazardous pollutant under the Clean Air Act, requiring power plants to drop their mercury emissions by 90 percent. Now, however, under Cheney-Bush, coal-fueled power plants -- which account for 40 percent of airborne mercury pollution -- don't have to worry about regulation at all, thanks to an EPA guy named Jeffrey Holmstead.
Even Sen. Edwards himself has called for Holmstead's resignation. This is from his press release:
"Senator Edwards clashed with Holmstead last year over Holmstead's refusal to provide scientific evidence that proposed rollbacks to the Clean Air Act would not harm human health. Holmstead, who has taken a higher profile role since EPA Administrator Christie Whitman stepped down last month, had championed the rollbacks which would make it easier for old factories and power plants to increase their pollution levels."
Airborne mercury drops into our oceans, rivers and lakes, rendering fish unsafe for consumption by women of childbearing age; some people blame mercury pollution for the rise in autism. As Bobby Kennedy points out in his book,
Crimes Against Nature, one out of six women of childbearing age in the U.S. has dangerous levels of mercury in her blood, meaning that any children she might have are at high risk for cognitive impairment.
The Star-Tribune, Newspaper of the Twin Cities, ran an excellent editorial a few days ago summing up the Bush administration's rollbacks; there's so much going on that it's hard to keep track of it all.
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