| RENO, NEVADA
- May 31 - While the Sierra Club is never opposed to good manners, Texas
Governor George W. Bush's solution to curbing pollution -- `Just Say
Please' -- just doesn't work.
To shine a spotlight on the Bush failure of Bush's "Just Say Please"
policy, the Sierra Club launched a new radio ad in Nevada today,
coinciding with a visit in which the Governor is expected to wrap
himself in the green flag.
"George Bush's `just say please' approach has been a failure for
Texas," said Ellen Pillard, Chair of the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra
Club. "Gov. Bush hasn't listened when Texans asked him to clean the
air and water, but we hope he'll be more receptive to Nevadans during
his visit. That's why the Sierra Club is urging Nevadans to call
Governor Bush and tell him to oppose legislation in Congress that
weakens penalties for clean air and water violators."
Despite Bush's attempts to get business to voluntarily reduce
emissions, Texas has continued to lead the nation in industrial air
emissions, which increased in the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's most recent Toxic Release Inventory. The state's toxic
pollution discharged into surface waters jumped nearly 20 percent, to
approximately 25 million pounds. And for the first time in history,
Houston topped Los Angeles as the nation's smog capital in 1999.
"Governor Bush has shown more concern with giving polluters options
than with protecting families who breathe the nation's dirtiest air,"
Pillard said.
"Just Say Please," is the latest ad in the Sierra Club's campaign to
educate voters about George W. Bush's environmental record. With over
600,000 members, the Sierra Club is the nation's oldest and largest
grassroots environmental organization. It first ran ads about
Governor Bush's record in November in New Hampshire and has since
aired ads in six other states.
Below is the script and documentation for "Just Say Please."
Sierra Club-- Haddow Communications
Radio :60
"Just Say Please"
SCRIPT
George Bush has a plan to clean up the air and water: Just ask the
polluters to stop.
DOCUMENTATION
* "Bush let industry write an anti-pollution measure, and believes
voluntary plans, not regulation, can clean up the air and water. No
wonder Texas has a world-class pollution problem."
-Time, February 21, 2000
* "[Bush's] voluntary anti-pollution initiatives have produced only
marginal improvements."
-Dallas Morning News
SCRIPT
Problem is, that hasn't worked in Texas. For the last four years,
George Bush has been asking power plants to voluntarily clean up their
act.
DOCUMENTATION
* Rather than adopting tough laws to reduce pollution from aging
facilities, Bush asked industry to draft their own regulations to
pre-empt legislative action. After a briefing by the industry
insiders who wrote the plan, DuPont official Jim Kennedy noted the
voluntary industry proposal, had "no `meat' with respect to actual
emissions reductions. One of the [business] leaders actually stated
that emissions reductions was not a primary driver for the program."
-Sierra Magazine, November/December 1999
SCRIPT
Today, Environmental Protection Agency's latest data shows Texas leads
the nation in industrial toxic air pollution and Houston has surpassed
Los Angeles as America's smoggiest city.
DOCUMENTATION
* The emission of toxic air pollutants emissions rose from 108 million
pounds in 1997 to approximately 110 million pounds in 1998. Keeping
Texas at No. 1 in this category.
-1998 TRI, Environmental Protection Agency, released May 11, 2000
* In 1999 this pollution led to Houston passing Los Angeles to claim
the dubious title as the nation's smoggiest city. And it's not just
the number of days-- it's also the intensity. On Houston's smoggiest
day, the air was nearly 50 percent dirtier than the air on Los
Angeles' smoggiest day.
-EPA and TNRCC data based on EPA's "Guideline for Reporting of Air
Quality--Air Quality Index (AQI)"
SCRIPT
And toxic water pollution in Texas has increased.
DOCUMENTATION
* Industrial toxic pollution discharged into surface waters jumped
nearly 20 percent, to approximately 25 million pounds in the most
recent Toxics Release Inventory for 1998.
-1998 TRI, Environmental Protection Agency, released May 11, 2000
* Pollution has to some degree impacted all of Texas' 15 inland river
basins and 8 coastal basins, several of its reservoirs, and all of its
estuaries, coastal wetlands, and bays.
--Texas Natural Resources Conservation Committee, Water Quality
Inventory
SCRIPT
Truth is, the air and water are cleaner in many places only because of
tough laws like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. But George Bush
has worked to weaken water quality standards for Texas' lakes and
lobbied Congress to weaken the Clean Air Act.
DOCUMENTATION
* Since the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act went into effect, air
and water pollution is down across the nation.
-EPA data.
SCRIPT
Truth is, just saying please hasn't curbed pollution in Texas-- or
anywhere else.
DOCUMENTATION
* "More than a third of Texas' industrial air pollution comes from
so-called grandfathered power plants and other facilities exempt from
state controls since 1971. Mr. Bush has resisted efforts to force
cutbacks on these facilities. But more than two years ago, he won
commitments from dozens of companies to curb pollution
voluntarily...So far, little of the promised improvement has
materialized. In 28 months, grandfathered emissions have dropped only
about 2.4 percent, state records show."
-Dallas Morning News, May 26, 2000
SCRIPT
Call George W. Bush at 512-463-2000. Tell him to oppose legislation
in Congress that weakens penalties for clean air and water violators.
For our families, for our future. Paid for by Sierra Club
DOCUMENTATION
* There is currently legislation in Congress, S. 1053 and H.R. 3507,
which threaten clean air and clean water.
* H.R. 3507 is sponsored by Rep. Steve LaTourette R-OH. It would
delay and weaken Clean Water Act enforcement against municipal waste
treatment facilities that. allow the discharge of raw sewage into
rivers and lakes. This bill would create an incentive for communities
to ignore their sanitary sewer overflow problems. These overflows
threaten human health and the environment.
* S. 1053 is sponsored by Sens. Kit Bond R-MO, Gramm R-TX, Hutchinson
R-TX. This bill would weaken the sanctions provisions of the Clean
Air Act of 1990 (signed into law by President George Bush). Under
existing law, communities suffering from unhealthful levels of air
pollution cannot receive federal highways funds for new highway
construction that would add to congestion, sprawl and smog until they
had taken steps to reduce existing levels of air pollution, and
account for the increase of new pollution caused by the new highways.
(Federal funding for highway safety measures are exempt from this
sanction.) If this sanction is lifted, it would remove incentives for
cities to adopt clean air plans, and encourage them to build highways
that make problems worse.
* Last year, Texas state officials lobbied the Texas Congressional
delegation to support this bill.
-Boston Globe, December 17, 1999
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