EPA lets refineries miss deadline - again

[elehhhhna]

Dec. 12, 2004, 1:38PM

EPA lets refineries miss deadline - again
Associated Press

FORT WORTH -- Federal officials have quietly allowed the nation's oil refineries to miss court-ordered deadlines to reduce air emissions, prolonging the public's exposure to dangerous pollutants, a newspaper investigation has found.

Nearly every time, the Environmental Protection Agency failed to tell the courts or the public about the deadline extensions, even when legal settlements required it to do so, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported today.

Because of those extensions, the EPA's Petroleum Refinery Initiative has not achieved the air quality improvements that the agency has claimed, the newspaper found.

Under the initiative, the EPA uses legal settlements known as consent decrees to resolve decades of alleged pollution violations. In return for installing pollution controls and paying a fine, companies are immediately released from all legal liability.

Tom Skinner, the EPA's top enforcement official, touted in an October news release that settlements under the initiative have reduced emissions of air pollutants by 200,000 tons per year at 48 refineries in 24 states.

But a review of data conducted by the newspaper found the reductions actually total only about a fifth of that amount.

[GAspnes]

1. death by a thousand inactions...

..I suppose it's not an impeachable offense when the Executive fails to execute?

[BattyDem]

2. I guess I can expect my asthma to get worse

Oh well, breathing is overrated anyway. :eyes:

[Zorra]

3. Here's the link:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2943834

Bu$h sure is one sick puppy. A real versatile killer.

This is from the American Cancer Society:

The data for the study came from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study II study, an ongoing program that has tracked the health of over 1.2 million people since 1982.
snip---
The study found there was no level of air pollution that was safe, and that the more air pollution increased, the higher the risk became of dying from lung cancer, heart disease, or from any cause.
snip----
A 1994 study by Pope estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Americans died yearly from the effects of outdoor particulate air pollution.
snip----
"The results of this research suggest that further public policy efforts to improve our air quality will result in significant benefits," Pope concluded.

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/nws/content/nws_1_1x_air_pollution_linked_to_deaths_from_lung_cancer.asp

[Just Me]

4. Duh! Their goal was maximizing profits!!!

They do NOT, NOT, NOT give a damn about life, any life, including human life. They are "capitalists",...PROUD CAPITALISTS!!!

"STUFF/THINGS" matter,...life is temporary and should be gluttonously enjoyed while it lasts.

[BattyDem]

5. I understand that, but their children and grandchildren ...

will be breathing all that shit, too. How much money do these people need? :shrug:

[Just Me]

10. They "breathe" money/profit/comfort.

They are consumed by "stuff" and "power". They have no concern about "reality" or the future. They are absolutely corrupt by their worry-free existence.

They haven't a clue,...and have no incentive to get outside their ivory-white-tower existence.

They are more IGNORANT than 95% of the populace.

Hence, they can contribute NOTHING. Worse, they are destroying the very best of that which they could never survive.

It'll all work out.

They are nothing without the rest of us.

[maddezmom]

6. AP: Air Pollution a Top Priority for Bush

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will make air pollution a top priority in Congress early next year, starting with ``an aggressive push'' to build support for his pollution-cutting plan, senior administration officials said Saturday.

At the same time, the administration will hold off until no later than March on a rule to cut pollution from power plants that would accomplish some of the same ends as Bush's anti-pollution plan, the officials told The Associated Press.

~snip~

The Bush administration is now staking its money on a bill in Congress that weakens and delays public health protections already provided under the current Clean Air Act, while forcing the EPA to delay public health protections under current law,'' said John Walke, director of clean air programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Administration officials now hope Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, can get the bill onto the Senate floor soon. The interstate rule on power plant pollution was to have been made final by the end of this year, but doing that could detract from the need for the legislation.

more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4669446,00.html

f'ing liars and hypocrites. :puke:

[VegasWolf]

7. Get that oil out of the ground at ANY expense! n/t

[cavanaghjam]

8. There's an EPA? nt

[maddezmom]

9. sure and Mike Leavitt, head of the EPA is on the list to be DHS director

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4669514,00.html

[DeepModem Mom]

11. kick

[Karenina]

12. It's called

Population reduction.

[struggle4progress]

13. kick

:kick:

[Bouncy Ball]

14. My daughter's asthma

and those of thousands and thousands of other kids in my red state is getting worse.....