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Statement Of Ed Scharf
Environmental Protection Agency
Aging Initiative Public Listening Session
San Antonio, Texas
April 8, 2003
While our politicians rave on and on about foreign Axis of Evil forces armed with Weapons of Mass Destruction, the citizens of this country, especially the elderly and infants, are being ruthlessly and shamelessly slaughtered and maimed by Weapons of Mass Destruction deployed by domestic Axis of Evil forces. This chemical warfare is in the form of Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Mercury, along with a host of other highly toxic agents such as PM 2.5 and PM 10, emitted from the smokestacks burning fossil fuels.
It is estimated that these chemical toxins kill roughly twice as many people as do drunk drivers or murderers. These domestic Axis of Evil forces are none other than our Power and Petro-Chemical Plants, along with their political co-conspirators in the White House, Congress, and lower levels of government that sanction their actions of death and destruction.
After years of futile appeals to elected officials, our future course towards ending this carnage of the citizenry is clear:
- Elect independent-minded candidates to office who do not have their hands in the deep pockets of these domestic Axis of Evil forces,
- Demand that major TV meteorologists, instead of giving us the pollen count which makes us sneeze, give us the toxin count and its source which is killing and crippling us, and
- Strongly support the availability of clean air Fuel Cells that have successfully powered the Space Shuttles for many years.
* was unable to present his remarks in person at the session