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Tag Archives: Clean Air Act

When It Comes to Fighting Climate Change, We Need All the Tools in Our Tool Belt to Win

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle -

The passing of another Earth Day seems to have some pundits waxing nostalgic. One such pundit, Nicholas Lemann of the New Yorker, wrote a glowing piece about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who turned out for the first Earth Day in 1970. He even went as far to say that the absence of grassroots action in today’s environmental movement allowed Congress to sidestep climate legislation in 2009 and 2010.

28-09-2011

The groundswell of support for the first Earth Day was indeed a potent force. It was the catalyst for change and launched an extraordinary time in environmental history. It inspired me and many of my colleagues at NRDC who were the drivers behind passage of landmark environmental protections like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. But, unlike Nicholas Lemann, I don’t believe our best days are behind us because I know how much we are accomplishing right now.

Political Landscapes Change, Requiring New Navigational Tools

Today the 1970-style teach-ins sound like a distant memory, much like FDR’s fireside chats did back then. When Earth Day first launched, it caught polluters off guard. Today is a different story. Now big oil and the gas industry are in full opposition mode. They spent $168 million on lobbying in the year before the climate bill was introduced, and it poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2012 campaign to elect climate denying candidates. Tea Party leaders in the House, meanwhile, voted more than 300 times to gut environmental safeguards in the last two years. The good news is the NRDC Action Fund and our allies activated our powerful network of supporters and prevented most of the terrible measures from becoming law. In today’s political environment, sometimes a good defense is our best offense.

While some may believe the tactics of the 1970’s is what we need to be victorious today, I argue that today’s political realities demand not just one, but all the tools at our disposal. Environmental victories will come from grassroots action, media outreach, scientific research and advocating our positions on Capitol Hill. We have to use our power, influence and message to affect change. There is no magic tool in our tool belt that can change the heart of fossil fuel opposition or defuse extreme Tea Party ideology. In today’s dysfunctional Congress, not even broad public support works. With polls showing that 90 percent of Americans support tougher gun control laws one would think Congress would easily pass a bill. Heck, so many voters called Congress to voice their support of stronger measures that they shut down the switchboard. Yet here we are today, still no closer to Congress passing anything. What was once considered the low hanging fruit-extending background checks to online sales and private gun shows-couldn’t even make it out of the Senate.

In his New Yorker article, Lemann bemoans the fact that there has been no major environmental legislation since the 2010 effort to pass a climate bill. But a Congressional strategy won’t work when Congress is this stuck. Even in the best of times, it takes multiple attempts to pass transformative legislation—just ask anyone who works on health care, immigration reform, or gun control.

How to Get Things Done, Without Congress

I get it. Change is hard. But, playing a blame game is easy. Rather than pointing fingers at one another or Congress, let’s keep working. While some have been busy plotting our early demise, America has been implementing standards which will continue to reduce our carbon pollution. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have declined 12 percent since 2005. We are on track for far deeper reductions, because we’ve been using all the tools at our disposal to work with the White House to use its existing authority to reduce pollution.

Just last August the Obama administration issued fuel economy standards that will cut carbon pollution from new cars in half by 2025. They will also reduce U.S. oil imports by one third and save drivers $1.7 trillion at the gas pump. The administration also proposed the first-ever carbon limits on new power plants. These are not minor efforts. They target America’s two largest sources of carbon: cars and power plants.

But, we’re not done yet. Now it’s time for President Obama to take the next bold steps. We won’t rest until he uses the Clean Air Act to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants and rejects the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that would lock us into decades of carbon pollution from the dirtiest fuel on the planet.

President Obama is clearly committed to confronting climate change, but prompting him to move forward will require all our tools. We aren’t just relying on an inside or outside strategy. In today’s game you need both. Our plan includes a cost-effective plan from NRDC for how the EPA can structure its carbon standards for existing power plants. At the same time, the environmental community is coordinating grassroots efforts in support of the standards—just like when the environmental coalition collectively helped generate a record-breaking 3 million comments in support of carbon standards for new power plants. And NRDC is providing expert scientific, economic, and public safety analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline, while helping to organize protest rallies that brought tens of thousands of people to the White House.

Be Proud, but Never Settle

These efforts in concert with one another are creating the climate solutions we seek. The results are astonishing. This Earth Day is just one administration after the Cheney Energy Task Force practically sanctified oil and gas development. Just one year after a presidential primary in which nearly every Republican presidential candidate denied the existence of climate change. Yet, America has cut our carbon emissions, dramatically expanded our investments in renewable energy, and cleaned up our cars. But, we’re not done yet.  In fact, we are only getting started.  I’m confident we will have even more reasons to celebrate at Earth Day 2014 and beyond.

President Obama Has the Power to Act Now on Climate Change

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle -

Now that President Obama has officially been sworn in for a second term, speculation about his governing priorities has reached a fevered pitch. Will he reform immigration first? Will gun control be next? And with this sentence in his inaugural address, President Obama put climate change front and center in the policy priority debate: “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”

All the guesswork on sequence and timing ignores a plain truth: America should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. The political landscape may be fractured and contentious right now. But even in this gridlocked era, we should expect our leaders to tackle more than one challenge at once.

A handful of issues deserve immediate attention. Climate change is among them, President Obama has the power to act now despite Congressional gridlock, and this is why he must make it a top priority.

More People Will Be Put at Risk If We Don’t Act Soon

You might think 2012 will go down in history as the year of Hurricane Sandy. But that was just one of many extreme weather events to devastate our communities last year. We also had the worst drought in 50 years, the heat wave that put more than 100 million Americans under heat advisories, the freak derecho storm that left 23 dead and 1.4 million people without power from Illinois to Virginia, and the prolonged Western fire season.

The list goes on: NRDC experts found that at least 3,527 monthly weather records were broken for heat, rain, and snow throughout the United States last year. If you look behind many of these record-breaking events, you find destroyed homes, lost crops, shuttered businesses, broken dreams, and costly damage. NOAA’s National Climate Data Center reported that 11 extreme weather events reaped more than $1 billion in losses in 2012.

Extreme weather is a hallmark of climate change, and if we don’t address this crisis soon, millions more Americans will experience this kind of severe hardship.

Americans Are Providing the Political Will

A few years ago, I chose not to talk about climate change at holiday gatherings, because I didn’t want the drama that came with bring up a divisive issue. But now my family and millions of other Americans have seen what climate change could look like with their own eyes. They look out the window and see weather patterns thrown out of whack and damages reaching all-time highs. Climate change has hit home, and a growing number of Americans want to do something about it.

An October 2012 survey conducted by Yale and George Mason University found that 70 percent of Americans believe global warming is real. In contrast, the number of Americans who deny the reality of climate change dropped nearly by half to just 12 percent since January 2010.

Another October survey from the Pew Research Center found that 64 percent of Americans agree climate change is a “somewhat serious” or “very serious” problem. Eighty-five percent of Democrats say there is “solid evidence” of climate change, while nearly half of Republican do—a jump of 37 percent from 2009. A decade ago, these numbers were higher, but the fact remains:  the majority of Americans rarely agree on anything, but they agree on the threat of climate change.

More significantly, they want action. In September, the majority of voters living in swing states said they favored candidates who think the Environmental Protection Agency should reduce carbon pollution—the main cause of climate change—according to a survey by Public Policy Polling.

This majority helped shape the 2012 election cycle. Voters overwhelmingly chose candidates who support clean energy and climate action up and down the ticket. In Maine, for instance, Senator Angus King was able to paint his opponent Charlie Summers as extreme and out of touch because Summers doesn’t believe in climate change.

The recent polls and election outcomes show Americans will stand behind climate action. Now it’s time for our leaders to tap that support and put solutions in place.

We Know How to Solve It

Some Congressional leaders have said they would introduce climate legislation. Yet given the current stalemate on Capitol Hill, I don’t expect to see a bill hitting President Obama’s desk any time soon. The good news is that the White House doesn’t need to wait for Congress. It can act now using authority Congress granted it when it passed the Clean Air Act, overwhelmingly, 40 years ago.

NRDC released a groundbreaking proposal showing how, under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency can set limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants—the nation’s biggest source of global warming pollution. In the process, it would save thousands of lives and drive a surge of new investment in clean energy.

It would also help ease some of the regional tensions that arose when the House of Representatives passed climate legislation in 2009. NRDC’s proposal offers a unique federal and state partnership that recognizes the differences in how power is generated across the country and gives maximum flexibility for states and power plants to meet emissions standards the EPA would set for each state.

It’s time for President Obama to set these carbon limits in motion. He can begin now—even as he pursues additional priorities—knowing the majority of Americans want to tackle the threat of climate change.

 

LCV, NRDC Action Fund Launch $350K Ad Buy Blasting Rep. Altmire for Voting Against Kids’ Health

Posted by: NRDC Action Fund -

Votes to Block Mercury, Smog Protections Expose More Pennsylvania Families to Dangerous Pollution

***VIEW THE AD HERE***

PENNSYLVANIA – Today, the League of Conservation Voters and NRDC Action Fund launched a new television ad in Pennsylvania’s 4th district blasting Representative Jason Altmire for voting to repeal important health safeguards under the Clean Air Act and delay or weaken others. The television ad will run on broadcast and cable in the Pittsburgh media market.

“Endangering the health of Pennsylvania families will not create jobs nor will poisoning the air we breathe jumpstart the economy, yet Congressman Altmire has continually voted for toxic legislation that would block the EPA’s efforts to protect Americans from dangerous air pollution like mercury, smog, and soot,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “Congressman Altmire should stop siding with corporate polluters and start standing up for the men, women and children of Pennsylvania whose health he is jeopardizing with each of these votes.”

Rep. Altmire has voted repeatedly to block the EPA from protecting public health and Pennsylvania families from dangerous mercury pollution and smog. (HR2250, House Vote 791, 10/13/11; HR2681, House Vote 764, 10/6/11; HR2401, House Vote 741, 9/23/11; HR1, House Vote 86, 2/17/11).

“Representative Altmire’s votes tear down the healthy air safeguards needed to protect families, especially kids and pregnant mothers, from dangerous, life-threatening air pollution,” said NRDC Action Fund Director Heather Taylor-Miesle. “There are nearly 25,000 asthmatic kids in Allegheny County alone who would have benefitted from the cleaner air that Representative Altmire is blocking. We think they need protecting a lot more than polluters do.”

The television ad focuses on Rep. Altmire’s votes to put women and children at risk in Pennsylvania by blocking mercury pollution protections. With several more attacks on healthy air expected in the U.S. House, including likely upcoming votes on bills which would block pollution safeguards from new power plants and indefinitely delay new protections, the ad urges Rep. Altmire’s constituents to contact him to tell him to vote the right way on these critical public health issues.

Two other members of the Pennsylvania delegation, Representatives Tim Holden (PA-17) and Lou Barletta (PA-11) were the subject of television ads in October for their dirty air votes.

While largely supporting the ongoing pro-polluter agenda in the U.S. House, Rep. Altmire has received almost $400,000 in campaign contributions from dirty energy interests over the course of his career. [Center for Responsive Politics]

View the ad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5BO9fZGawc

NRDC Action Fund, LCV Blast Pennsylvania Rep. Altmire for Voting Against Kids’ Health

Posted by: Pete Altman -

Throughout this year, Pennsylvania Rep. Jason Altmire (PA-4) has voted repeatedly to repeal, delay and weaken the important healthy air safeguards our kids and families need to protect us from dangerous smog, soot, mercury and other toxic air pollution.

So we’ve teamed up with the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) to make sure Rep. Altmire doesn’t get away with voting against our kids’ and families’ health with this hard-hitting TV ad that makes clear just how dangerous Rep. Altmire’s votes have been:





We want Rep. Altmire and all members of Congress to know that they’ll be held accountable for all votes that put kids’ and our families’ health at risk. In Allegheny County alone, there are nearly 25,000 asthmatic kids who are vulnerable to more frequent and severe asthma attacks because of Rep. Altmire’s votes. We think they need protecting a lot more than polluters do.

Here are the highlights of Rep. Altmire’s votes against healthy air this year:

  • September: Altmire Voted for the TRAIN Act. This bill repeals and delays standards that protect kids and families from dangerous air pollution. It repeals the Cross-State Air Pollution standard, which would reduce soot and smog pollution from power plants. It delays the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which would reduce mercury and other toxic pollutants like arsenic, dioxin, and formaldehyde from power plants. The bill eliminates any actual deadlinesfor EPA to re-issue health standards, allowing these life-saving standards to be blocked indefinitely– effectively repealing clean air safeguards that would prevent thousands of deaths and illnesses. Finally, the bills eviscerate the legal authority for EPA to re-issue protective standards.Health impact: 139,500 deaths, 66,000 hospital visits, and 1 million asthma attacks over the next seven years – and over 25,000 additional deaths every year after.
  • October: Voted to block EPA from cleaning up cement plants. By supporting H.R. 2681, Altmire voted to roll back current standards to limit toxic pollution such as mercury, lead, and cancer-causing dioxins from cement plants. The bill Altmire supported eviscerates strong toxic air pollution standards for these plants and eliminates Clean Air Act compliance deadlines for these life-saving standards, meaning companies’ compliance with any future toxic air pollution standards could be delayed indefinitely. See more details here.Health impact: 11,250 deaths.
  • October: Altmire votes to prevent cleanup of toxic pollution from incinerators and industrial boilers.Altmire voted for H.R. 2250, which repeals and weakens Clean Air Act safeguards slated to reduce mercury, toxic metals, acid gases and other hazardous air pollution from incinerators and other industrial polluters. The bill Altmire supported also repeals Clean Air Act compliance deadlines for these life-saving standards, meaning companies’ compliance with any future toxic air pollution standards could be delayed indefinitely.. .See more details here.Health impact: Up to 22,750 deaths, during just the bill’s minimum period blocking safeguards.
  • February: Altmire voted to gut the clean air act. HR 1 was the greatest legislative assault on environmental protection in decades. This bill thoroughly guts the Clean Air Act and all but dismantles the Environmental Protection Agency. Altmire’s vote for HR 1 blocked enforcement of vital environmental and public health laws by slashing EPA funding and through the inclusion of 19 separate policy ‘riders’ that prevent EPA from enforcing its legal obligations to protect public health from air toxics, water pollution and to carry out the laws previous Congresses have required EPA to do.

Help us spread the word and make sure Rep. Altmire hears from his constituents that he should be protecting kids, not polluters.

President Obama’s Decision on Ozone: Bad Policy and Bad Politics

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle -

I’ll admit it. I was originally a Hillary Clinton supporter in 2008. I liked then-Senator Obama’s passion but I was comforted by Clinton’s experience in what I felt was a tumultuous time. After Obama became the victor from the primaries, I enthusiastically got on board.

Now, I feel like sucker.

Last Friday, President Obama forced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set aside a measure to reduce smog. If you breathe, this should be a big deal for you. The new smog rule would have saved up to 43,000 lives and avoid as many as 2,200 heart attacks every year while making breathing easier for the 24 million Americans living with asthma.

This is a decision that was solely in the President’s court. He ignored the EPA and the recommendation of the agency’s outside science advisors to side with polluting industries.

Why is the President now siding with polluters? He has taken strong environmental stands in the past. We saw the President push what was effectively the largest clean energy legislation ever passed as part of the initial stimulus bill. We stood with him as he pushed the climate bill in that first year. More recently, we saw the White House put us a road to reducing carbon pollution by making our cars cleaner.

But a number of recent moves are going in the opposite direction. The White House gave tentative approval to offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean. The Administration continues to move forward on steps to approve the Keystone pipeline. And now it is backing away from smog rules.

Why? The White House claims clean air protections would be too expensive. But this is a farce. Letting the polluters off the hook won’t save lives, won’t create jobs and won’t fuel innovation. It will, however, endanger the health and lives of children and seniors.

In fact, as NRDC’s Frances Beinecke said late last week, “clean air investments yield enormous returns. The smog standards would generate $37 billion in value for a cost of about $20 billion by 2020. Taken together, Clean Air Act standards generated approximately $1.3 trillion in public health and environmental benefits in 2010 alone for a cost of $50 billion. That’s a value worth more than 9 percent of GDP for a cost of only .4 percent of GDP. The ratio of benefits to costs is more than 26 to 1.”

Why the White House is running away from this story is beyond me. This shouldn’t be about the economy because these safeguards will create jobs. And this retreat certainly isn’t going to get him any votes. In a June poll of likely voters commissioned by the American Lung Association found that 75 percent supported the EPA’s effort to set stronger smog standards and 66 percent believed that EPA scientists– not Congress — should establish clean air standards. Is he is hoping to attract a few votes from right? Unlikely if you consider that only 24 percent of moderate Republicans and 7 percent of conservative Republicans think he is doing a good job according to the the most recent Gallup polling.

Color me confused. The only thing that makes sense is that the White House made a political calculation that it couldn’t win the message war against the Tea Party. The Tea Party has made “regulation” a dirty word when in fact regulations help keep us safe.

Environmental and public health regulations are what keep that industrial mill from dumping its toxic chemicals in the lake you fish in each summer. Regulations have been cleaning our air for decades. Regulations on buildings ensure that your home and office be built to withstand foreseeable natural disasters. Long gone are the days when machinery regularly maimed employees thanks to labor regulations. And a lack of regulations can lead to disaster – just look at the Wall Street crash and the part that lax regulations played in that disaster. The word “regulation” is really a synonym for “public safeguard.” When did that become a bad thing?

President Obama should reconsider this misguided move and redouble his efforts to protect clean air. He is going to have many opportunities in the coming days to right this wrong. The House will be voting as early this month to try to overturn the clean air standards the White House has moved forward with. But if we don’t weigh in, the Tea Party will set the agenda of this White House.

Where is the hope and change that we were promised in 2008? I suspect that a lot of people who walked precincts and stood in long lines to cast a vote for the President Obama in the last Presidential election are asking themselves the same question.

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