WASHINGTON - January 15 - The Sierra Club today announced the first in a series of advertising blitzes to educate the public about the Bush Administration's dismal environmental record. Starting on Thursday, January 15 the Sierra Club will have a combination of TV and print ads in nine states and D.C. highlighting the Bush Administration's contradictory and dangerous positions on toxic mercury.

Television ads will run in Tampa, FL; Detroit, Michigan; Milwaukee, WI; Las Vegas, NV; Columbus, OH; Portland, OR; Pittsburgh, PA and New York, NY. Print ads will also run next Tuesday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Post, Roll Call and La Opinion.

"During the State of the Union address, President Bush will gloss over how his administration puts our communities at risk to benefit corporate polluters," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "We're making sure the public knows the Bush Administration consistently favors polluting industries over health and safety."

This latest run of ads is part of Sierra Club's ongoing grassroots on-the-ground campaign to educate the public about the Bush Administration's environmental record. "We're not only on the air, we're on the ground too," said Pope. "In each of these states we are mobilizing our activists to get the word out. On their doorsteps and on the phone, Sierra Club volunteers are letting their neighbors know that there is better way to keep our communities safe and healthy."

The ads released today point out that "On December 10th, the Bush administration joined 45 states warning Americans not to eat fish with high mercury levels that can cause birth defects and learning disabilities. But days later, the administration said it wanted to give power plants permission to shower more mercury onto our lakes and streams for 10 years longer than the law allows."

On December 15, 2003, the EPA proposed a cap-and-trade mercury reduction program that established a 34-ton cap in 2010 and a 15-ton cap in 2018. But strong enforcement of current clean air law would have reduced mercury emissions to 5 tons by 2008.

Mercury is a powerful toxin that causes learning and developmental disabilities in children. Women of childbearing age and people who regularly and frequently eat highly contaminated fish, or even large amounts of moderately contaminated fish, are most likely to be at risk from mercury exposure. Children exposed in the womb or after birth, subsistence fisherman and certain Native American populations are also at risk.

Since taking office the Bush administration has weakened or stopped enforcing key sections of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Acts. They have allowed corporations to escape their responsibility for cleaning up the damage they cause and shifted those costs to taxpayers. And the Bush administration has opened millions of acres of wilderness including some of America's most environmentally sensitive lands to logging, mining, oil and gas drilling.

Thirty years of progress has taught us: There is a better way. The Bush Administration should enforce clean air and clean water laws; hold polluters responsible for the damage they do; and create jobs and clean up our environment by investing in modern technology, energy efficiency, and renewable energy sources like wind and solar power to create a clean and affordable energy future.

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