It’s time to overhaul the old adage that bad things happen in
threes. When it comes to the most recent State of the Union
address, bad things come in 16 word utterances that roll off the
president’s tongue like the hissing of an asp. First there was the
false allegations that Iraq attempted to buy uranium from Niger.
Now it’s the promise that the Clear Skies Act ‘mandates a 70
percent cut in air pollution from power plants over the next 15
years.’
According to a recent Tom Paine report, four members of
Congress have signed a letter to President Bush calling into
question the validity of this statement. Citing an EPA analysis of
the Clear Skies Act — available prior to the State of the Union
address — Representatives Thomas H. Allen, Edward J. Markey, Frank
Pallone Jr., and Lois Capps confirmed that the president’s proposal
would achieve ‘slightly less than a 65 percent reduction in
emissions’ in an 18-year period. With a bottom line of three years
overdue and 1,260,000 tons above caps, the representatives noted
that the EPA findings are ‘startlingly different than [his]
original assurance.’
The representatives have requested that Bush either correct his
statement or provide ‘Congress and the American people with any
additional analytical work’ supporting his promise. They
alternatively recommended that President Bush direct the EPA to
modify the Clear Skies Act to reflect the figures indicated in his
original statement.
— Erin Ferdinand
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Lies in the
Air
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