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May 26, 2005
Contact:

Michelle Rosier, Clean Air Organizer
Cell (651) 214-9915, Office (612) 659-9124,


State Attorneys General Fight to Protect Public Health from Harmful Mercury


St. Paul, MN — Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch joined twelve other states in acting to protect public health and enforce federal law by challenging the Bush Administration's rule on mercury emissions from power plants. The Sierra Club and eight other concerned organizations sent the Attorney General a letter urging him to sign on to the suit. The new rule allows three times more mercury pollution from America's dirtiest power plants than strong enforcement of our current clean air laws. It also delays cleanup for more than a decade.

Michelle Rosier, Clean Air Organizer for the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, said "The Sierra Club applauds Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch and the other state Attorneys General who filed lawsuits against the EPA for taking steps to do something the Bush administration is not — protecting newborn babies and children from harmful exposure to mercury.

All of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes and other waterways are covered by statewide fish consumption advisories issued by the Minnesota Department of Health because of unsafe mercury levels. Young children and expectant mothers are especially vulnerable to mercury's toxic effects, and the EPA estimates one in six women in America have mercury levels in their blood high enough to place newborn babies at risk.

Last year over fifty parents in Edina marched in a "Baby Buggy Brigade" to protest the Bush administration rule. (Photo available from .)

Minnesotans may check results of mercury tests done for specific lakes and rivers at www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/fish/eating/sitespecific.html.

The following Attorneys General have filed lawsuits against the EPA:

  1. New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey
  2. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer
  3. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
  4. Maine Attorney General G. Steven Rowe
  5. Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly
  6. New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte
  7. New Mexico Attorney General Patricia A. Madrid
  8. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
  9. Vermont Attorney General William H. Sorrell
  10. Wisconsin Attorney General Peggy A. Lautenschlager
  11. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
  12. Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett
  13. Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch

For more information, visit http://northstar.sierraclub.org/campaigns/air/mercury/national.html.