{"id":4169,"date":"2011-07-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-prod.greenpeace.org\/usa\/campaign-updates\/4169\/pollutingdemocracy\/"},"modified":"2024-12-10T13:47:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T13:47:43","slug":"pollutingdemocracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Polluting Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"p4descriptive_paragraph\">This report provides a sampling of the actions of a bipartisan cadre of 15<br \/>\npoliticians, who are among those in the House of Representatives working for<br \/>\nAmerica\u2019s dirty and decrepit coal-fired power industry. These 15 members<br \/>\nhave tried to stop EPA from modernizing standards for pollutants that come<br \/>\npredominantly from coal-fired power plants, including mercury, sulfur dioxide,<br \/>\nnitrogen dioxide, greenhouse gases, and coal ash. Except for the one fresh-<br \/>\nman, these members of Congress are in the top 25% of those receiving money<br \/>\nfrom the fossil fuel industry. Many are in leadership positions within Congress.<br \/>\nThe actions reviewed for these 15 politicians were opposed to the health of<br \/>\npeople in their own districts.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large p4featured_image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/ebd7d699-pollutedemocracy-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"pollutedemocracy-thumb.jpg\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The majority of the ancient US coal fleet has not installed easily available technology that could reduce mercury pollution by 90%. Coal combustion is responsible for most US mercury pollution. Mercury contributes to thousands of deaths annually and may adversely affect the development of over 400,000 babies per year. Mercury exposure is a serious problem for the lungs, brain, heart, stomach, kidneys, and immune system. Much airborne mercury often falls back to the ground and waterways within only 100 or so miles, but it can be re-emitted into the air, float down streams, and accumulate in animals since mercury cannot be digested.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/12\/7b12bb54-pollutingdemocracy.web_.pdf\">Download the report.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The majority of the ancient US coal fleet has not installed easily available technology that could reduce mercury pollution by 90%. Coal combustion is responsible for most US mercury pollution.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":10456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[212],"tags":[78,6,72,68,100],"p4-page-type":[29],"class_list":["post-4169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-democracy-campaign","tag-democracy","tag-climate","tag-congress","tag-coal","tag-fossil-fuels","p4-page-type-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Polluting Democracy - Greenpeace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Polluting Democracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The majority of the ancient US coal fleet has not installed easily available technology that could reduce mercury pollution by 90%. Coal combustion is responsible for most US mercury pollution.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Greenpeace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeaceusa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-07T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-10T13:47:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/1e7067ff-gp025c6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1199\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"798\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@greenpeaceusa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@greenpeaceusa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greenpeace Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Greenpeace Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/#\/schema\/person\/2e289e91a0312e6d4e4d364719a17e24\"},\"headline\":\"Polluting Democracy\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-07T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-10T13:47:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/\"},\"wordCount\":214,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/1e7067ff-gp025c6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Democracy\",\"Climate\",\"Congress\",\"Coal\",\"Fossil Fuels\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Democracy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/\",\"name\":\"Polluting Democracy - Greenpeace\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/1e7067ff-gp025c6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-07T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-10T13:47:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/pollutingdemocracy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/1e7067ff-gp025c6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-usa-stateless\/2024\/11\/1e7067ff-gp025c6.jpg\",\"width\":1199,\"height\":798,\"caption\":\"Greenpeace activists and students hold a protest with the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop in Washington, D.C. The activists have smeared their hands with oil and are displaying a banner which reads ' Congress: You've got oil on your hands'. They are calling on Congress to come clean, get rid of campaign contributions from dirty energy, and to stop subsidizing oil and coal. 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