Can you contact Sen. Mikulski?

Friends,
 
There is a very bad bill making its way through the House of Representatives that would allow industrial boilers and incinerators, as well as cement kilns to burn all kinds of waste products outside of the protections of the Clean Air Act.  It would also allow these facilities to burn coal ash as a source of energy too.
 
Senator Mikulski is rumored to be joining the companion bill to bad House bill as a co-sponsor, and voting for this bill. Mikulski is said to be concerned that the Luke Paper Mill in Frederick County may be going out of business (the site of the worst coal ash spill in our state's history), and therefore wants to slow down (many believe eliminate) EPA's ability to regulate these facilities and what they burn in their industrial boilers and incinerators and the emissions they emit.
 
We need to place calls to Senator Mikulski asking her to please not co-sponsor this bill and to please vote against it. We are trying to reach her directly with the concerns of Maryland residents, if not able to reach the Senator herself please ask to speak with Teri Curtis in her office.  They can be reached at 202-224-4654.  Teri's e-mail address is teri_curtis@senate.gov.
 
We need to generate as many phone calls as we can to Senator Mikulski to let her know that we are deeply concerned that EPA not be hampered from regulating these major sources of toxic air pollution in our state and across our country.
 
Please take a few minutes to make this call today.  Below please find a script you can use when you make your call, and a review of the bill attached.
 
More material is available if you need more information. Contact Vernice Miller-Travis/dba Miller-Travis & Associates - Advocating for Environmental Justice and Sustainable Community Development - 104 Jewett Place -  Bowie, MD 20721 - 301-537-2115 - vmt_3@msn.com.

 

This is urgent, and perhaps the only thing that can pull Senator Mikulski back from this bad vote is hearing from Maryland residents, especially environmental and civil rights leaders in her state.  If you make the call, let me know what the response was.
 

     I am calling to express concern about legislation from Senators Collins and Wyden that would allow dirty facilities like the paper mill in Western Maryland to continue to pollute the air and water in our state.  The House of Representatives is voting on companion legislation [HR 2250 –see attached] as part of Rep. Eric Cantor’s so-called “jobs” agenda as soon as next week.  It would be a tragedy if the Senate took up this bill.
·         The bill would give industry a complete exemption from a basic and long-standing Clean Air Act requirement that all major polluters clean up their toxic emissions.
·         The bill would allow boilers and incinerators to burn plastics, tires, solvents and other wastes without pollution controls.
·         The bill would allow increases in respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological illness and premature death due to increased emissions.
·         The bill is more than a delay.  It casts aside rules that have already been through public comment, requiring additional resources to redo the rule.  Even after a new rule comes out, it may never go into effect. This is a reversal of the Clean Air Act which has always required that air toxics safeguards be met within 3 years.
·         I urge you to continue to fight for the environment, for environmental justice and for public health by opposing the Collins-Wyden bill.

 

Kagiso,

 

Max