James M. Jeffords: “I wish to state my support for the amendment offered by my distinguished colleague from Illinois, Senator Fitzgerald…”

“I wish to state my support for the amendment offered by my distinguished colleague from Illinois, Senator Fitzgerald, and to express my extreme disappointment that it was not agreed to by this body. This very sensible amendment would have clarified that the incineration of municipal solid waste will not be treated as renewable energy for purposes of the renewable portfolio standard and for the Federal renewable energy purchase requirement. This issue arises because the burning of landfill waste in incinerators is one method of producing electricity. It produces only a minimal percentage of our electricity, but creates almost one quarter of the nation's mercury emissions, and significant levels of dioxin. Dioxin, a known carcinogen, cause impairment of immune, nervous, reproductive and endocrine systems, even at extremely low concentrations. Infants are particularly sensitive to dioxin because of dioxin concentrations in human breast milk. Studies of infants show up to 65 times the maximum dioxin exposure recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. The National Academy of Science has found that although waste incinerators have reduced their dioxin air emissions, total dioxin releases in fly ash, bottom ash and other revenues have not decreased. According to the most recent EPA data, 2.2 tons of mercury were emitted from garbage incinerators in 2000. This accounts for almost 20 percent of the nation's mercury emissions.”