Today, EPA lawyers disclosed that, based on the recommendations of Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force, the Bush Administration has forced them to drop investigations of 50 power plants for past and ongoing violations of the Clean Air Act.

"Once again, the Bush Administration has betrayed the public trust through a stealth campaign to undermine the laws that protect our air and water," General Clark said today. "Under its so-called 'Clear Skies Initiative,' the Bush administration has weakened and delayed rules that protect our health and dramatically reduce emissions of toxic mercury from power plants."

The Administration's announcement comes on the same day that the EPA, State of Florida and United States Geological Survey released a ten-year study, confirming that enforcement would have an almost immediate effect on improving the environment and public health, by reducing emissions and eliminating 90 % of toxic concentrations of mercury in contaminated aquatic life and wildlife. General Clark, himself a hunter and fisherman, promised that he would reinstate "tough limits on emissions of mercury from smokestacks by requiring 1960s-era power plants to install modern pollution control technology.