CONTACTS: Linda Rozett/Eric Wohlschlegel
(202) 463-5682 / 888-249-NEWS

 

Tuesday, July 8, 2003

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue called an ad campaign sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council – which compares American electric utilities to weapons of mass destruction and their operators to terrorists – shameful and irresponsible.

 

“American utilities are not weapons of mass destruction but the foundation for the American way of life.  Without electric power, factories would close and workers would be without jobs, senior citizens and small children would suffer through frozen winters without the means to warm themselves, hospitals would stand empty and lifesaving machines idle, and billions of people worldwide would starve as crops were left in the field.

 

“Electric utilities power our economic engine and, as a result, we are able to enjoy a standard of living that is unparalleled.  The result is an America where our public is healthier, infant mortality is lower, and people are living longer than ever.

 

“And all this power is generated with less pollution – our environment is cleaner now than anytime in the past several decades.  Since 1970, the U.S. gross domestic product has increased 161 percent – and electricity production has increased – yet emissions of air pollutants have decreased 25 percent.  For most of this country, the levels of lead, smog, soot and acid rain are all lower than they were twenty years ago.  Today, the U.S. emits six times less mercury than China and two times less mercury than Europe.

 

“The great gains of the industrial age and advances in modern living conditions have been brought to us in large part from the electricity provided by power plants and their operators.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

 

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