By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 14, 2007; D01
The Senate passed an energy bill with overwhelming bipartisan support last night but only after a Republican filibuster threat forced Democratic leaders to ditch the bill’s tax package, which would have extended tax breaks for wind and solar projects while reducing breaks for the biggest oil and gas companies.
The revised bill, approved by a 86 to 8 vote, would boost fuel efficiency standards for new automobile fleets to 35 miles a gallon by 2020, increase energy efficiency standards for appliances and buildings, and set a mandate for the vastly expanded use of ethanol and other biofuels.
The measure will go back to the House and, if approved, to President Bush, who said last night that he would sign it.
USA Today – October 29, 2007
Power plants are focus of drive to cut mercury
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-29-mercury-cover_N.htm
By Larry Wheeler, Gannett News Service
Despite decades of government attempts to regulate it, ban it and erase it from household use, the poisonous metal mercury remains a threat to the environment and public health, especially to children and to women of childbearing age.
As many as 600,000 babies may be born in the USA each year with irreversible brain damage because pregnant mothers ate mercury-contaminated fish, the Environmental Protection Agency says. Medical researchers are just beginning to explore such mercury exposure in adults, which can leave some people struggling through life in a disorienting “fish fog.” Nationwide, more than 8,000 lakes, rivers and bays are compromised by mercury’s toxic effects.
USA Today – October 29, 2007
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-29-mercury-emitters_N.htm
By Larry Wheeler, Gannett News Service
CHESTER, Va. — The big power plant that hugs the shoreline of the winding James River just south of Richmond is getting bigger.
Construction of a sprawling pollution-control project will almost double the size of Dominion Resources’ Chesterfield plant, which supplies electricity to about 300,000 homes and businesses in central Virginia.
When it’s all over, the complex — including metal towers, a tile-lined wet scrubber and a towering new chimney — will cut the plant’s emissions of mercury and other pollutants by an estimated 90%.
Just six years ago, the coal-burning plant was one of the nation’s largest mercury polluters, releasing 1,300 pounds of the metal into the air. But even before the new pollution controls could be installed, the plant’s mercury output was cut to 360 pounds in 2005. While the plant is now burning coal that is lower in mercury content, part of the reduction is explained by more accurate emissions estimates.
SINGER-SONGWRITER AND ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATE TRACY LYONS TO LAUNCH “MERCURY RISING TOUR” ON OCTOBER 25 AT WSU CAMPUS IN PULLMAN, WASHINGTON
LYONS’ POWERFUL NEW VIDEO “SAVE ME” REACHES 250,000 VIEWS ON YOUTUBE (Watch Here)
Los Angeles, CA, October 18, 2007: Singer-songwriter, veteran environmental activist and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) advocate Tracy Lyons launches her 2007-2008 Mercury Rising Tour on October 25 with a concert at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Lyons’ vision for the tour is to draw additional attention to the issues of global warming, alternative/clean energy solutions and the negative effects that pollution has on our health. A longtime spokesperson for clean and sustainable energy technologies, Tracy Lyons’ call to action regarding environmentalism first came through health issues that she personally experienced related to toxicity poisoning from heavy metals including mercury and lead.
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