HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

191

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

requesting the united states congress to repeal the changes made by the bush ADMINISTRATION to the Clean Air Act in 2002.

 

WHEREAS, according to the Clean Air Act, toxic substances such as mercury must be controlled by the "maximum achievable control technology" standard; and

WHEREAS, two years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that under a maximum achievable control technology standard, power plants using existing technologies could reduce ninety per cent of mercury emissions from power plants, bringing mercury emissions down from forty-eight tons to roughly five tons per year by 2008; and

WHEREAS, under changes made by the Bush administration in 2002, there is allowed a significant delay for cleaning up power plant mercury emissions and a standard that is far weaker than the maximum achievable control technology standard and is not protective of public health; and

WHEREAS, in effect, these changes would treat power plants' mercury emissions as non-hazardous air pollution and allow power plants to emit six to seven times more mercury into the nation's air, and for a decade longer, than the Clean Air Act requires; and

WHEREAS, additionally, changes made by the Bush administration allow some plants to avoid reducing mercury emissions altogether by purchasing pollution credits from other cleaner plants, which increases the chances that toxic "hotspots" could develop in communities where deposition is more prevalent; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, that the United States Congress is requested to repeal the changes made by the Bush Administration to the Clean Air in 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Clean Air Act; Bush Administration; U.S. Congress