Mercury emissions

The Kansas City Star

The Environmental Protection Agency asserts that it is working to reduce poisonous mercury in the environment. But Americans are getting a lot of political rhetoric, not results, from the Bush administration.

Every year tons of toxic mercury emissions are spewed into the air from power plants, the largest manmade source of mercury pollution. The emissions sometimes travel for miles, and eventually the mercury ends up in fish that humans consume.

The substance is particularly dangerous to children and pregnant women. The government estimates that one in 12 women of childbearing age has an unsafe level of mercury in her blood. Americans are being warned to limit consumption of tuna.

Despite all this, the EPA's proposals to regulate this harmful pollution have been entirely inadequate. The agency's orders come from a pro-industry White House, which has shunted aside environmental experts and endorsed proposals that appear to have been written by the polluters.

The EPA is sticking with its plan for regulating mercury emissions despite complaints by health experts, environmental groups and Democrats in Congress that the proposal undermines the Clean Air Act.

The plan would allow power plants to trade pollution "credits." Plants with a relatively clean record could sell their credits to mercury-spewing facilities, which could keep right on polluting. That would create "hot spots" of toxicity across the country.

The plan abandons a proposal by the Clinton administration to stop 90 percent of the nation's mercury emissions by 2008.

The EPA expects to delay final action on its plan for three months. During that time, agency officials should convince the White House to reconsider.

The Washington Missourian

The Missouri secretary of state's office will check signatures on petitions calling for a vote on a constitutional amendment that would require the state to spend more of the funds generated by motor fuel taxes and vehicle sales taxes on road construction.

The petitions have nearly 200,000 signatures on them and about 125,112 valid voters' names must be verified to put the amendment before voters.

The amendment would phase out the transfer of some road funds to some agencies over four years, providing an average increase of about $31 million a year to highway projects.

Some of the funds for roads and bridges have been diverted to the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Revenue, Office of Administration, and to two other state offices, treasurer and auditor. These agencies and offices do perform some duties for the Department of Transportation (MoDOT).

Specifically, the proposal is asking voters to require funding from motor fuel taxes and vehicle sales taxes to be dedicated to only two agencies -- MoDOT and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. ...

If this issue goes to voters, it should stand a good chance of passage with the right doses of information to the people.

The Joplin Globe

Missouri has an official state flower, an official state insect and an official state tree, and now it has an official state dinosaur, Hypsibema missouriensis.

Being able to claim our own Missouri dinosaur should make our chests swell with pride, shouldn't it?

Declaring something the official state this or that seems a waste of valuable legislative time, assuming anyone bothers to read, discuss or debate the legislation that identifies something specifically belonging to Missouri.