DETROIT - Residents of Detroit and the rest of Michigan are afflicted with some of the U.S.'s worst power plant air pollution, prompting a new advertising campaign unveiled today by the Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) that encourages state residents to act by June 29th to urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take action on the problem. The advertisements link the power plant pollution to fish consumption advisories and the estimated 1,000 deaths, 1,700 heart attacks and 24,000 asthma attacks in the state.

The new advertisements highlight Detroit Edison's Monroe plant -- Michigan's dirtiest power plant -- which President Bush visited in late 2003 to tout the White House's so-called "Clear Skies" legislation. The new advertisements focus on the health toll inflicted by Michigan power plants, including neurological damage due to mercury poisoning, and premature death, chronic bronchitis, asthma and other major ills associated with power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, a pollutant linked to premature death.

The complete text of one of the 60-second advertisements reads as follows: "981 premature deaths … 1,700 heart attacks … 24,000 asthma attacks. Mercury poisoning our lakes. That's the price Michigan pays each year for dirty coal-burning power plants just like Detroit Edison's Monroe plant - Michigan's single largest emitter of toxic mercury pollution. What is the Bush Administration's answer to this public health crisis? It wants to let utility companies buy the right to pollute and delay the cleanup the law requires. Cleaning up our power plants is good for Michigan workers and families. Contact the U.S. EPA and let them know its time to stop cutting backroom deals with big utilities. If the Bush Administration won't stand up for us, isn't it time Michigan stood up for itself?"

More than $25,000 will be spent over the next week on the radio ads featuring messages from the MEC. The advertisements urge Detroit and other state residents to contact the EPA to oppose rules that, once in place, would permit Detroit Edison and other power companies to delay installing mercury controls required under the Clean Air Act.

Lana Pollack, president of the Michigan Environmental Council: "We urge citizens to contact the EPA to toughen toxic emission standards, since the federal agency has dropped the ball in dealing with dirty power plants that literally are in our backyards. Detroit and the rest of Michigan shouldn't be the national poster child for power plant pollution. This is not some theoretical problem -- EPA's own scientists acknowledge the deadly effects of power plant pollution. The time to act is now!"

Eric Schaeffer, former EPA chief of civil enforcement and current director of the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington, D.C., said: "Until very recently, we were seeing real progress under Clean Air Act enforcement to reduce pollution from power plants in Michigan. That all went out the window with the Bush Administration's campaign to dismantle the Clean Air Act, with the wholesale abandonment in 2003 of cases that were under investigation. This inaction by EPA is outrageous and Michigan residents need to understand that their health is suffering as a result."

Dr. Michael Harbut, MD, MPH, an environmental toxicologist and assistant professor of internal medicine at Wayne State University and also a practicing physician at the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine in Royal Oak, commented: "The purpose of these ads is to educate people - about the harmful pollution they're breathing and about the sad fact that the Bush Administration's EPA has abandoned the public's health. Since the federal government won't force dirty power to clean up, it's time for state residents to take the initiative. We're being forced to fix this problem ourselves."

ABOUT THE GROUPS

The Michigan Environmental Council is a coalition of 67 environmental and public health groups working in at the local, state and federal levels to protect Michigan's land, water, air and public health.

The Environmental Integrity Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March of 2002 to advocate for more effective enforcement of environmental laws. EIP was founded by Eric Schaeffer in March of 2002. Mr. Schaeffer was director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement until 2002, when he resigned after publicly expressing his frustration with efforts of the Bush Administration to weaken enforcement of the Clean Air Act and other laws.

- 30 -