Earth Day

EARTH DAY

Mr. JEFFORDS. I rise to speak about an issue that has been with us for a long time and for which we have had responsibility and have done a pretty good job at making sure everything would turn out all right. 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.

The Earth continues to warm and this Bush administration refuses to act to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. This Bush administration has a growing credibility gap, maybe even a credibility chasm, on environmental policy. The President has lost the trust of the American people when it comes to the environment.

As the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I believe we have an obligation to maintain and enforce the environmental laws already on the books and also to strengthen them. Unfortunately, our President is moving us backward instead of leading us forward. I hope we can once again celebrate Earth Day by showing more respect for our environment.

I yield the floor.