Weekly Update for Monday, July 17, 2006

Last week I told you about pending legislation I’m backing to deliver desperately-needed resources to help children caught up in the meth epidemic.  On Thursday, we scored a big victory for these children when the Senate passed this proposal unanimously.  Once passed by the House and signed into law, this legislation would provide $40 million in new annual funding for drug prevention, treatment, training, and counseling to help curb the effects of meth on children.  Senate passage is a big step toward curbing the harmful effects of meth on children and will help keep meth from destroying even more lives. I’ll continue to do all I can to make sure this important help gets signed into law.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are ten Superfund sites here in our state where human exposure to toxic chemicals and hazardous materials is still not under control.  Nationwide, a total of 146 sites meet this description and there are an additional 148 sites where the EPA has insufficient data to determine whether or not human exposure is under control.  At far too many dangerous toxic sites across our country there seems to be inadequate information and no cleanup timeline.  We even have a site in Washington where cleanup is reported complete, but where the EPA still says human exposure is not under control.  To help fix this pressing problem, I’m pushing the EPA to produce a detailed report on the human exposure threat at each Washington site and outline what is needed to control human exposure.  We need to get this process moving and get cleanup started as quickly as possible.

Last year, oil tankers and barges made around 4,500 trips through the Puget Sound, many passing through the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary at the entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca on their way to our state’s ports and refineries.  This heavy vessel traffic and the area’s rough weather and rocky coast make Washington’s outer coast and the Strait of Juan de Fuca particularly vulnerable to a large oil spill.  Even though it was identified as a priority action in the Sanctuary’s 1994 Management Plan, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has yet to conduct an oil spill response exercise in the isolated Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.  This exercise would provide an opportunity for agencies to test their response capabilities and practice using oil containment and cleanup equipment.  Therefore, I’ve asked NOAA to conduct such a field exercise as soon as possible so that we can be prepared to respond to the worst-case scenario.  I also called for an oil spill drill in my Oil Pollution Prevention and Response Act, introduced earlier this year, which includes a number of other provisions to reduce the risk of oil spills including improved tug escort procedures, a year-round rescue tug in Neah Bay, and financial support for Washington’s Oil Spill Advisory Council.  This is a commonsense action that will help ensure we have the equipment and resource coordination necessary to protect the diverse marine life, productive fisheries, and scenic shorelines off Washington’s northwest coast.

A new report by the Environmental Working Group shows that the U.S. can reduce oil imports by 20 percent simply by applying real-world gas mileage to current fuel economy requirements.  Current gas mileage estimates for cars and trucks are based on outdated formulas that I’ve long tried to correct.  Most recently, in June, I joined a bipartisan Senate coalition in introducing legislation to improve the fuel efficiency of America’s vehicles for the first time in 20 years.  The Ten-in-Ten Fuel Economy Act also includes legislation I authored to require the EPA to provide more accurate fuel economy estimates for the window stickers on new vehicles, and would apply these new, more accurate mileage estimates to fuel economy compliance tests.  Current window labels overestimate real-world fuel economy by 20 to 50 percent, assuming Americans drive an average of 48 miles per hour on the highway, never drive over hills, and don’t use air conditioners. Current corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) compliance tests are based on a similarly outdated formula.  It’s ridiculous that we still rely on an inaccurate, 30-year-old fuel economy test that consistently overestimates the mileage American drivers get in real-world driving conditions.  We need to fix this blatant gap in our fuel economy standards, improve the gas mileage of America’s vehicle fleet, and reduce our reliance on imported oil.