Speak Up Now!

With passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 and its subsequent amendments, this country has made historic strides in protecting air quality over the last three decades.  However, the White House is on the verge of dismantling this historic Act.  Please help us keep intact a major provision of the Clean Air Act that is necessary in protecting the northeast from more damage from acid rain.

The Administration is on the verge of gutting the New Source Review (NSR) requirements of the Clean Air Act.   This program requires power plants to install modern air pollution controls when older plants are rebuilt or upgraded.  This vital provision is critical in reducing emissions from the old coal burning power plants in the Midwest whose emissions harm aquatic life, forest ecosystems and human health in the Adirondacks, Catskills, Hudson Highlands, White Mountains and the Appalachians. 

These fifty to sixty coal fired power plants produce approximately 84% of the nitrogen oxides and almost 90% of the sulfur dioxides produced in generating electrical power.  They are the bulk of New York’s acid rain problem.  To throw away the NSR requirements for these dirty plants would be turning back the clock on this continuing national problem.   

Attorneys General from NY, NJ, ME, CT, MD, MA, NH, RI, and VT have called on the Bush Administration not to weaken the New Source Review requirement.  They too agree that such a rollback in air quality protections will have a devastating impact on public health and the environment, particularly in the Northeast.   U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft also ruled that the pending NSR court cases by the federal government against out-of-compliance power plants are valid and should continue. 

Despite this support for the New Source Review Program, it has been widely reported that the White House will proceed with a fatal weakening of this requirement. 

Please take time to write, call or email the White House and voice your support for this important program. 

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500 

Email the White House at president@whitehouse.gov

Call the White House Comment Line at 1-202-456-1111 (This is a great way to express your position. It’s quick, easy, and a live person answers the phone and tallies up comments and positions.) 

Some Facts on Acid Rain: (See also www.hikersforcleanair.org)

Right now, approximately 41% of lakes in the Adirondacks and 15 % of lakes in New England are biologically dead due to acid rain.   Acidic deposition has increased the concentration of toxic forms of aluminum in soil waters, lakes and streams.

In the Catskill Mountain reservoirs that provide drinking water to New York City, as well as waters throughout the Northeast, elevated concentrations of aluminum and mercury in water and fish are attributable to surface water acidification. 

Since the 1960s, more than one half of the large canopy red spruce in the Adirondack and Green Mountains and one quarter of large canopy red spruce in the White Mountains have died.  Acid deposition is the major cause of red spruce decline at high elevations throughout the northeast.

Fifty to sixty coal-fired power plants regulated by NSR produce approximately 85% of the emissions that cause acid rain. Weakening of the NSR rule would have a major impact on the country’s health and environment and lead us clearly away from coming to a solution on this national problem.