Hi Everyone,
If indoor air quality is a concern of yours, you may be interested to know
(or you probably already know) that Monongalia County is considering a
smoking ban that would extend to bars and restaurants. The text of the
proposed regulation is here:
http://www.monchd.org/download/ProposedMonongaliaCountyCleanIndoorAirRegula…
An very informative site is Smoke Free Mon County:
http://www.smokefreemonc.org/involved.html
The Board of Health is taking comment from the public on this until March
16, 2008. ****
"Comments must be submitted in writing. All comments must include name,
address, telephone number and email must include a verifiable e-mail
address. Email comments to info(a)monchd.org or mail them to: Monongalia
County Board of Health; Re: Smoking Regulation; 453 Van Voorhis Road,
Morgantown, WV 26505"
They seem to like e mail ( info(a)monchd.org ). I received a prompt
response when I sent my message.
- paula hunt
Ozone Rules Weakened at Bush's Behest
EPA Scrambles To Justify Action
By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, March 14, 2008;
Page A01
The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on
smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President
Bush, according to documents released by the EPA.
EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to
protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their
proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had
proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase
the limit, according to the documents.
"It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the
president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves
exclusively to EPA's expert scientific judgment," said John Walke, clean-air
director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The president's order prompted a scramble by administration officials to
rewrite the regulations to avoid a conflict with past EPA statements on the harm
caused by ozone.
Solicitor General Paul D. Clement warned administration officials late
Tuesday night that the rules contradicted the EPA's past submissions to the
Supreme Court, according to sources familiar with the conversation. As a
consequence, administration lawyers hustled to craft new legal justifications for the
weakened standard.
The dispute involved one of two distinct parts of the EPA's ozone
restrictions: the "public welfare" standard, which is designed to protect against
long-term harm from high ozone levels. The other part is known as the "public
health" standard, which sets a legal limit on how high ozone levels can be at any
one time. The two standards were set at the same level Wednesday, but until
Bush asked for a change, the EPA had planned to set the "public welfare"
standard at a lower level.
The documents, which were released by the EPA late Wednesday night, provided
insight into how White House officials helped shape the new air-quality
rules that, by law, are supposed to be decided by the EPA administrator.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) questioned in a March
6 memo to the EPA why the second standard was needed. EPA officials answered
in a letter that high ozone concentrations can cause "adverse effects on
agricultural crops, trees in managed and unmanaged forests, and vegetation
species growing in natural settings."
The preamble to the new regulations alluded to this tug of war, stating
there was a "robust discussion within the Administration of these same strengths
and weaknesses" in setting the secondary standard. The preamble went on to say
that the decision to make the two ozone limits identical "reflects the view
of the Administration as to the most appropriate secondary standard."
The effort to rewrite the language -- on the day the agency faced a
statutory deadline -- forced EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson to postpone at the
last moment a scheduled news conference to announce the new rules. It finally
took place at 6 p.m., five hours later than planned.
Under the Clean Air Act, the federal government must reexamine every five
years whether its ozone standards are adequate, and the rules that the EPA
issued Wednesday will help determine the nation's air quality for at least a
decade.
Ozone, which is formed when pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and other
chemical compounds released by industry and motor vehicles are exposed to
sunlight, is linked to an array of heart and respiratory illnesses.
The EPA set the allowable amount of ozone in the air at 75 parts per
billion, a level stricter than the current limit but higher than what the scientific
advisers had recommended.
Carol M. Browner, who served as EPA administrator under President Bill
Clinton, also encountered objections from the OMB when she established new ozone
standards in 1997. In that instance, the president backed the EPA over White
House budget officials.
"We did not allow OMB to push us into a decision we were quite certain was
outside the boundaries of the law," Browner said in an interview. The Clean
Air Act, she added, creates "a moral and ethical commitment that we're going to
let the science tell us what to do."
Asked for a comment yesterday, EPA spokesman Timothy Lyons said the agency
had complied with the Clean Air Act. "The secondary standard we set is fully
supported by both the law and the record, and it is the most protective
eight-hour standard ever for ozone."
When asked about Clement's role, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said:
"The White House sought legal advice from the Justice Department and made its
decision based on that advice."
The EPA's documents suggest that senior officials and scientific advisers
resisted the White House's position. Last year, the agency's Clean Air
Scientific Advisory Committee wrote -- using italics for emphasis -- that it
unanimously supported the EPA staff's conclusion that "protection of managed
agricultural crops and natural terrestrial ecosystems requires a secondary [ozone
standard] that is substantially different from the primary ozone standard. . .
."
When the OMB's Susan E. Dudley urged the EPA to consider the effects of
cutting ozone further on "economic values and on personal comfort and
well-being," the EPA's Marcus Peacock responded in a March 7 memo: "EPA is not aware of
any information that ozone has beneficial effects on economic values or on
personal comfort and well being."
Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown University law professor who specializes in
the Clean Air Act, said Dudley's letter to the EPA represents "a
misunderstanding of the statute, a misunderstanding of Supreme Court precedent and a
misunderstanding of the science as the expert agency understands it."
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From: website(a)stopthetowers.org
Sent: 3/11/2008 3:49:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Stop the Towers Update
March 9, 2008
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Here is latest update on the Stop the Towers efforts and related issues.
You can always find the latest at the website and on the ECCO Hotline at
724-267-3040. Please stay involved and work to keep all your friends and neighbors
informed.
Buses Are Filling Up
The PUC Evidentiary Hearings in Pittsburgh are just two weeks away and the
buses are filling up! Beginning at 10:00 am on March 24th at the State
Office Building, the Public Utility Commission will begin hearings on the
proposed AP TrAIL. To assist the residents in Washington and Greene Counties, Stop
the Towers is organizing buses to take you up and back for the hearings.
For less than the cost of gas and parking, not to mention you won’t have to
worry about fighting the traffic, you can ride a bus with other Stop the Towers
supporters and be dropped off in front of the State Office Building. Please
contact Rebecca Foley (_rfoley1(a)windstream.net_
(mailto:rfoley1@windstream.net) ) as soon as possible to reserve your seat. Departure and return times
will be available from Rebecca.
TrAIL Co Sends Insulting Letter to ALJ’s
We believe it is important to have YOU attend the Evidentiary Hearings.
Apparently, TrAIL Co does not! Earlier this week, TrAIL Co sent a letter to
the Administrative Law Judges asking them to issue an order about proper
decorum in the courtroom. They caution the ALJ’s by asking for “observers in the
hearing room is (be) closely monitored for everyone's safety, and to permit
sufficient room for all the parties, counsel, witnesses and staff before
making space available for observers.” TrAIL Co is worried that we won’t
properly behave and would disrupt the proceedings. They point to the Public
Input Hearings and said that the supporters of TrAIL were “concerned about their
personal safety in returning to their vehicles”. First of all, isn’t that
ironic that the same company that has been sending land agents onto our
properties, harassing and intimidating people in their own homes, is now worried
about that same kind of behavior. Secondly, never has Stop the Towers
encouraged nor supported such behavior and we certainly are not now! We simply
believe that it is important to continue to put faces to the rural Americans
whose lives will be destroyed or at the very least severely disrupted should this
unnecessary, greed-driven proposal be approved!! So what are you going to
do? Contact Rebecca and reserve your seat now!!!
DOE does it Again!
Once again, the Department of Energy has ignored everyone, except the
utility companies that will profit greatly, by denying all requests for Re-Hearings
on the NIETC designations. Even with a number of environmental groups
filing lawsuit against the designations, the DOE continues to support a flawed
energy policy that will encourage long-distant transmission lines coming from
the highly polluting, coal-fired generation plants rather than cleaner, safer
alternatives. Better alternatives which include demand-side management
programs, conservation, upgrading existing infrastructure and the most reasonable
solution, building the generation plants near the demand. Utility
companies benefit greatly from section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as they
will be granted profits of up to 14% or more, passing ALL costs on to the
rate payers and all the while taking property and destroying the lives of rural
Americans. This is exactly what is happening here in southwestern
Pennsylvania with the proposed AP TrAIL! Fortunately, most environmental groups and
at least some of our Congressman see the flaws in this policy. We must be
thankful for people like Senator Casey and the others that recently requested
Senate hearings on section 1221. (You can see the letter on the Stop the
Towers website)Please continue to encourage Senator Casey and others to push for
the complete repeal of Section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Specifically here in Pennsylvania, please contact Senator Specter (contact info
below) and encourage him to support a complete repeal of the above Act.
Senator Specter did sign Senator Casey’s letter asking for the hearings and he is
listening. But we must contact him and tell him our concerns because you can
be sure the utility industry lobbyists are talking with him every chance they
get. If he is not hearing from us, how is he to know what we are going
experiencing? Please email the Senator now. We need him on our side!
Senator Arlen Specter - United States Senator
Pittsburgh Office: Washington Office:
Regl. Entrprs. Twr. 711 Hart Building
425 6th Ave- Suite 1450 Washington, D.C. 20510
Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Phone: (202) 224-4254
Phone: (412) 644-3400
Fax: (412) 644-4871
Website: specter.senate.gov
Pittsburgh Office Staff Members
_Marybeth_McGowan(a)specter.senate.gov_
(mailto:Marybeth_McGowan@specter.senate.gov)
_stan_caldwell(a)specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:stan_caldwell@specter.senate.gov)
_adam_pope(a)specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:adam_pope@specter.senate.gov)
Stop the Towers!
For more information, go to _http://www.stopthetowers.org/_
(http://www.stopthetowers.org/) . If you feel you have received this email in error or no
longer wish to receive messages from Stop the Towers, a grassroots organization
dedicated to stopping the AP TrAIL, please reply to this email with REMOVE in
the subject line.
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NEW THINKER OF THE MONTH
Innovative individuals are doing some creative problem solving by re-thinking things
we take for granted. Noah Horowitz, an NRDC engineer, took a look at the energy
hogging vending machine.
There is now one soda machine for every 100 Americans! Some 3 million machines are
humming away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, using 10 times more energy than the
average refrigerator (the biggest energy user in your home). Noah started looking at
?solutions like more efficient compressors, fans and lighting. He also rethought some
of the simplest things like not having outdoor machines running all night in the middle
?of winter. The result is new machines that use half the energy of old ones. And
when Coke and Pepsi finish phasing in the new designs, the savings will be 5 billion
?kilowatt hours per year!
We become more powerful in our numbers, so I challenge all of you to
?get 5 new people to join the Virtual March at StopGlobalWarming.org.
By spreading the word, we are creating thousands of new global warming
activists. It takes an army, and we are building one!
Thank you for taking the first step by joining this movement.
Keep Marching,
Laurie David
Founder
StopGlobalWarming.org
CLEAN AIR CONFERENCE TACKLES GLOBAL WARMING
EPA staff attended the National Association of Clean Air Agencies conference
in Crystal City, Va. to define the role states and localities can play in the
development of effective federal global warming legislation. Four key issues
were discussed: Preserving the right of states and localities to set more
stringent greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction requirements; the role they can play
in implementing a federal GHG reduction program; the role they can play in a
federal allowance program and in determining how funding is distributed and;
their role in data management under a federal climate change program.
For more information, go to
_http://www.4cleanair.org/documents/GWConferenceMaterials.pdf_ (http://www.4cleanair.org/documents/GWConferenceMaterials.pdf)
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Proposed Clean Indoor Air Regulation -
The Monongalia County Clean Indoor Air Regulation proposing to eliminate
smoking in all public establishments and places of employment is open for
public comment for 45 days.? The Clean Indoor Air Regulation will be posted
at the Monongalia County Health Department, the Monongalia County Court
House and public libraries. The proposed Clean Indoor Air Regulation will also
?be available at www.monchd.org.
The public comment period will be February 1, 2008 through March 16, 2008.
Comments must be submitted in writing and the preferred method for submission
would be e-mail at info(a)monchd.org.
All e-mails must include Name, Address, Telephone Number, and a
Verifiable E-mail Address.
The Wellness Program is proud to support the protection of citizens and
workers through passage of a comprehensive smoke free
air regulation in Monongalia County.
Learn more at www.smokefreemonc.org
________________________________________________________________________
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EnviroBytes, a Summary of Issues and Events for Week Ending February 8, 2008,
from U.S. EPA, Region 3, Philadelphia, PA..............
REVISED STANDARDS PROMPT NEW AIR QUALITY DESIGNATIONS
EPA is reviewing the mid-Atlantic states’ recommendations as to which areas
are not meeting EPA air quality standards and should be designated as
nonattainment under a revised, national air quality standard for fine particulate
matter (PM2.5). EPA will make a final determination by Dec. 18, after which
citizens will be provided with critical information about air pollution levels
in their communities. Particulate matter are minute particles (2.5
micrometers in size or smaller) mixed with droplets in the air that are of great risk
to public health and the environment.
To learn more about PM2.5 and the revised standards, go to:
_http://www.epa.gov/oar/particlepollution/naaqsrev2006.html_
(http://www.epa.gov/oar/particlepollution/naaqsrev2006.html)
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We Need You....To Come to Charleston.
By Chuck Wyrostok, WV Environmental Council Outreach Crew,
www.wvecouncil.org
Our full-time staff lobbyists, Don Garvin, Vickie Wolfe and John
Christensen, are currently putting in some long days pounding the marble hallways at the
Capitol in Charleston, in our annual attempt to get the Legislature to
protect the environment for all the citizens of West Virginia.
And they sure would love some help from you, because there is nothing quite
like a constituent from a legislator’s home district showing up at the
capitol to “cheer” them on in the right direction. They listen to voters from
home. An army of citizen lobbyists descending on the Capitol would delight
our lobby team and lend a lot of clout to their efforts.
Showing up to speak directly to your Senators or Delegate is grassroots
lobbying at its best. They might appreciate hearing that you’ll be taking their
views on the planet’s health back home to your neighbors, and they may like
to hear that you might be writing a letter to the editor of your local
newspaper. It will be important for you to emphasize that you sacrificed your day to
come to Charleston to express your views and that you want action and
results and that people in their home district will hear about it.
The Session is more than halfway through its two-month run. The battle of
clean streams vs. dirty streams (Tier 2.5) is revving up. The Bottle Bill
got a big boost last week when the CEO of a California company met with Gov.
Manchin and legislators to propose a facility here employing over two hundred
people (Flash, Joe! Recycling pays). There are stellar Delegates and
Senators to congratulate and encourage, like Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, who delivered an
impassioned speech to a hushed Senate Chamber deploring mountaintop removal
mining. Del. Barbara Fleischauer and House Judiciary Chairwoman Carrie
Webster are championing a series of solid ‘green’ energy bills. There’s even a
bill that would require retail establishments to phase out the use of plastic
bags by 2011! Please check
_http://www.wvecouncil.org/legisupdate/2008/02_08.html_ (http://www.wvecouncil.org/legisupdate/2008/02_08.html) for a
compilation of the bills WVEC is tracking.
We’ll send you an email “packet” with helpful tips and on your arrival Don,
Vickie or John will brief you on the status of specific bills being
considered and guide you to your legislators’ offices. Tuesday is the optimum day for
your visit, but Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays work as well (Fridays,
legislators are leaving for the weekend). If you live far from Charleston, try
to recruit some local fellow greens and carpool. We’ll try to arrange
overnight lodging if you need it (Charleston area folks, please let me know if
out-of-town travelers can stay overnight at your home). Or you could save gas
by getting a small group together and inviting your legislator to breakfast
or lunch right in your home district over a weekend.
Oh, one last thing. Friday, February 22nd is E-Day at the Capitol, an
excellent day for citizen lobbying, as well as networking in person with WVEC’s
member groups and having fun together that evening at our benefit reception. We
’ll present our 2008 Environmental Awards, listen to cool, live music by the
Blue Notes and enjoy a buffet dinner.
I’ll hook you up with the Green Team under the Gold Dome.
_wyro(a)appalight.com_ (mailto:wyro@appalight.com) or 304 927-2978.
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The Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition is a member of the
West Virginia Environmental Council (WVEC).....
See the recent report of the WVEC at the site below:
http://www.wvecouncil.org/legisupdate/2008/02_08.html#ctl
________________________________________________________________________
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****National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Call to Action****
Please call Senator Rockefeller and Senator Byrd next week and ask them to sign
onto a letter requesting oversight hearings on National Interest Electric Transmission
Corridor Designation (the letter is attached). The Department of Energy has
designated 42 of 55 counties in West Virginia as part of the Mid-Atlantic NIETC.
Within this area, an interstate transmission line applicant has access to federal
eminent domain to site the line. NIETC could be used to site the TrAILCo/Dominion
transmission line in West Virginia.
Please ask your Senators to join Senators Casey, Whitehouse and Biden in asking
the Energy & Natural Resources Committee to hold hearings on this flawed policy.
Senator Rockefeller’s DC office: (202)224-6472
Senator Byrd’s DC office: (202)224-3954
For more information, please contact Liese Dart at (202)857-6982
or by email at ldart(a)pecva.org.
What is NIETC Designation?
Sec. 1221 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act provided the Department of Energy the discretion
to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETC) in areas of the United States
that are found to be electrically congested. If a project lies within an NIETC, a utility may appeal an
unfavorable state decision to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for use of federal eminent
domain to site the project. Despite receiving over 2,000 comments against the designations, the
Department of Energy designated two corridors on October 5, 2007. The first NIETC’s encompass
portions of 10 states, 220 counties and impact more than 72 million people. The Department of Energy
failed to conduct an alternatives analysis or to consult with the affected states prior to these designations,
both requirements of Sec. 1221. Although this policy could be used to provide long distance transmission
access to our nation’s developing wind and solar facilities, the Department of Energy has not designated
areas of the country that are identified as having significant renewable resources. The Mid-Atlantic
NIETC designation will increase transmission infrastructure to coal-fired generation built prior to the
1972 Clean Air Act, facilities that lie outside of the EPA’s non-attainment area for air quality.
These investments in unnecessary interstate transmission will make cleaner alternatives such as
efficiency and demand response technologies less economically viable. Eight of the ten states in
the first NIETC designations have filed Petitions for Rehearing against the Department of Energy’s
final decision.
Liese Dart
Special Projects Assistant
Piedmont Environmental Council
Phone: (202)857-7982
Cell: (202)431-8606
Fax: (540)349-9003
ldart(a)pecva.org
www.pecva.org
________________________________________________________________________
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