CA: Former EPA head details evils of oil industry in book - Terry Tamminen

Oakland Tribune ^ | 11/2/06 | Julia Scott

[NormsRevenge]

Of all the authors who have penned indictments of Big Oil in the past few years, few have as much insight — or access — to the major players of the industry as Terry Tamminen. Years of working on energy policy as special advisor on environmental issues to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and as head of the state's Environmental Protection Agency have given Tamminen plenty of ammunition to use against petroleum companies and U.S. carmakers, and he employs it to powerful effect in his new book, "Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction."

Tamminen, who will speak at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, goes to painstaking efforts to show how the petroleum industry has lied to consumers about the long-term health effects of their products. The world is running out of oil,says Tamminen, and the industry will go to ever-greater lengths to ensure both endless supply and market dominance, including warfare and suppressing the development of alternative energies.

Any American who lives in a major city lives with smog, the "inescapable secondhand smoke" we breathe every day, composed of particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other toxins. According to the American Lung Association, more than 152 million people live in areas of the U.S. where the air quality puts their health at risk.

What most Americans don't know, and what Tamminen takes pains to point out, are the hidden costs of that pollution. Direct health-care costs of air pollution are $54.7 billion to $672.3 billion each year, from hospital visits to chronic care. Smog pollution is responsible for more than 6 million asthma attacks in the U.S. annually. It even destroys agriculture, reducing crop yields by between $3 billion and $6 billion a year.

Contra Costa County is home to six major refineries that expose residents to 60 tons of benzene, 30 tons of formaldehyde and other carcinogens each year.

Even for those not living near a refinery, there's no way to escape the effects of petroleum, says Tamminen. Rolling up the car windows while you're sitting in traffic won't have an effect. Even a tomato grown in a home garden or bought at a farmers market grown close to sources of urban pollution is contaminated with some of the 225 toxic by-products found in petroleum products.

Tamminen praises California's leadership on solar energy incentives and energy conservation, but says the state, and the country, have a long way to go to get oil companies to invest in electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells, which he sees as the most promising technology of the future. He even succeeded in persuading Schwarzenegger to switch his Hummer to run on hydrogen.

Tamminen says regulators have been undermined by industry lobbying, and suggests class-action litigation on a national scale to ensure restitution of natural resource damages or reimburse states for health-care costs relating to tailpipe or refinery pollution.

"It's hard to do the right thing when you have the big boys lying to you and undermining products that can help you become more energy efficient," said Tamminen, reached by telephone in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday.

[calcowgirl]

Tamminen says regulators have been undermined by industry lobbying

By all means, lets not let business and the economy interfere with big-government! What a ditz!

This guys resume gets more interesting every day. He went from being a swimming pool cleaner, to an RFK enviro-activist, to an auto mechanic who was going to convert Arnie's Hummer to hydrogen, to California EPA Secretary. . . to author extraordinaire. What next?

Tamminen, an Orange County-based mechanic who has converted other vehicles to run on hydrogen and other alternative fuels, is measuring the Hummer to see whether he can quickly get the needed parts. "It will be the ultimate alternative fuel vehicle," Tamminen said. "It will run on either natural gas or hydrogen." (source: LA Times, September 7, 2003)

[mysterio]

Any American who lives in a major city lives with smog, the "inescapable secondhand smoke"

Ah, I see the nannies are coming for your cars next. Kind of like smokers have been warning you all along.

[NormsRevenge]

Maybe the Ca GOP is grooming him for a run against Boxer..

[edcoil]

Headline: Another government hack attacks oil indusry in new book.

It is no wonder why our governor has destroyed his creditability on the global warming, oil industry issues.

[calcowgirl]

Maybe Vanna will give him an "R".

[P-40]

Sounds like a complete and total whackjob to me.

[sergeantdave]

The EPA is an illegal criminal enterprise dedicated to destroying private property and individual liberty. I consider the fascists who run the EPA as much of a threat to American freedom as Islamic terrorists. If I had my way I'd seize the property and assets of every EPA pig and deport them to North Korea.