James M. Jeffords: “I want to talk about clean air, the environment, and areas where we have made tremendous progress. As we mark Earth Day…”

“I want to talk about clean air, the environment, and areas where we have made tremendous progress. As we mark Earth Day tomorrow, rather than celebrating the environmental legacy, I am afraid we are fighting harder than ever to protect our progress. Since the day he came into office, President Bush has worked to gut more than 34 years of hard work by weakening many of our Nation's standing environmental laws, some of which were signed into law by his father. Air pollution is causing 70,000 premature deaths a year in the United States. Yet this Bush administration has proposed one of the biggest rollbacks of the Clean Air Act in history. Science tells us more than 600,000 women and children are at risk from mercury contamination. Yet this Bush administration has proposed to violate a legal requirement to reduce mercury emissions from powerplants. As we approach another summer, 40 percent of the U.S. rivers and lakes remain too polluted for fishing or swimming. In spite of this fact this Bush administration has proposed fewer bodies of water to be protected by the Clean Air Act. Toxic waste sites continue to be added to the Superfund while the Bush administration continues to cut funding for the program and refuses to reauthorize the 'polluter pays' law.”