Editorials

Last fall, the Bush administration drafted rules to change TRI reporting from every year to every other year. The agency also sought a tenfold increase of the threshold amount of chemical releases under which polluters need not file detailed reports to the EPA.

On Thursday, an amendment to the Interior Department’s appropriations bill aiming to block the rules changes passed with bipartisan support. But the amendment’s supporters did not include Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Anniston, even though he represents an area with a shocking history of being victimized by corporate and military polluters.

Maybe we should mention here that the congressman’s biggest campaign contributor over the course of his political career (counting PAC money) just happens to be Southern Company, whose coal-burning power plants, including those operated by Alabama Power, are notorious polluters.

Then again, maybe we’re being too cynical, since Rogers’ environmental record — according to both the left-leaning Public Interest Research Group and Republicans for Environmental Protection — has been pretty rotten across the board.

Whatever the case, is it too much to ask that "Toxic Town" at least be represented in Washington by someone who refrains from trying to undermine its right to know what poisons are in its water, soil and air?