| WASHINGTON
- June 12 - The nonprofit Clean Air
Trust today named Catholic Charities of Cleveland as the clean air
"villain of the month" for June 2002.
The Ohio-based group was cited because it testified today in the
United States Senate in opposition to legislation aimed at reducing
harmful pollution from coal-burning electric power plants.
The Catholic Charities' testimony "raises numerous questions,"
said Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust.
Catholic Charities' position was "truly startling," said
O'Donnell, because its eight-county service area in Northeast Ohio
includes 185,000 people who suffer from asthma, including 36,000
children, according to American Lung Association statistics. Nearly
all of these children live in neighborhoods hardest hit by pollution
generated by power plants in the Cleveland area.
The Cleveland area regularly experiences unhealthful levels of
ozone, or smog. For example, in 2000, the Cleveland area recorded 39
days with unhealthful levels of smog.
At a hearing today before the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee, the president of Cleveland Catholic Charities Health and
Human Services complained about the high cost of electricity and its
impact on the poor. He asserted that cleanup legislation sponsored
by Senator Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) would have a "negative impact on
millions of people in our country and in my state of Ohio."
O'Donnell noted that the Catholic Charities president cited only
statistics provided by the electric power industry's lobbying arm,
the Edison Electric Institute.
"This creates the unfortunate appearance that Catholic Charities
of Cleveland was acting as a front for the electric power industry,"
said O'Donnell. "It also raises questions about its connections to
the electric power industry."
O'Donnell noted that it was a "curious coincidence" that the
group's fund-raising arm, Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Foundation,
includes on its board of trustees one H. Peter Burg, chairman and CEO
of FirstEnergy Corp., which is being sued by the Justice Department
for alleged violations of air pollution requirements. FirstEnergy is
a prominent member of the Edison Electric Institute.
FirstEnergy's PAC (to which Burg has contributed) has given 2002
cycle campaign contributions to several senators on the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee, including Sens. George
Voinovich (R-Ohio), Bob Smith (R-N.H.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Arlen
Specter (R-Pa.) and Bob Graham (D-Fla.).
Privately, Burg has also contributed this campaign cycle to
Senator Bob Smith, to the Edison Electric Institute's PAC, to Sen.
Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and to various members of the House of
Representatives.
Catholic Charities of Cleveland is no stranger to political
controversy. In 2000, it hosted presidential campaigner George Bush,
who was then reeling from primary defeats by John McCain and a
controversial speech that Bush had made at Bob Jones University.
Bush used a Catholic Charities facility to make another speech that
helped right his campaign right before the crucial "Super Tuesday"
primaries.
Much of Catholic Charities' budget comes from the federal
government in the form of contracts.
Catholic Charities of Cleveland also gave an award in 2000 to
Senator Voinovich, who apparently arranged for the group to testify
today.
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