Our severely degraded air quality also causes death. Particulate pollution causes an estimated 1,500 premature deaths each year in New Jersey. Since 1980, the number of people dying from asthma annually has doubled. Unless strong public health and environmental protections are included in energy deregulation legislation, the situation will get worse. According to Resources for the Future, a Washington research group, deregulation will result in 1,264 million pounds of increased pollution, which causes respiratory illnesses, and a 2,350-pound increase in mercury pollution.
Coal plants are one of the largest sources.
Mercury contamination of New Jersey lakes has already resulted in polluted waterways and made eating fish dangerous. All electric power providers in New Jersey should be required to meet modern pollution standards. The platform also calls for investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy to reduce the need to produce power from polluting sources. Electric companies and large power users are lobbying state legislators to ensure that deregulation benefits their interests at the expense of the public interest. We must demand that the public health be safeguarded, not sacrificed.