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Tag Archives: health

President Goes to EPA while Most of GOP Candidates’ Heads are in the Sand

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle -

From Capitol Hill to the campaign trail, Republicans have spent the past year lambasting the Environmental Protection Agency and the work it does to safeguard our air, water, wildlife and lands.

Today, President Obama plans to present a clear contrast to the GOP’s misguided rhetoric.  He is scheduled to visit the EPA in a very visible sign of support for the staff and the standards that protect our air, water and environment.

The president’s much-needed trip to the EPA is a breath of fresh air amid the GOP smoke and mirrors surrounding the agency.

Mitt Romney calls the agency whose work annually saves hundreds of thousands of lives “out of control. Rick Santorum claims the EPA’s attempts to reduce mercury from coal-fired power plants is misguided, insinuating the science that proves mercury is dangerously toxic to small children and others is wrong or at least unimportant. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul want to eliminate the agency. And for Rick Perry, the EPA is um, um, Public Enemy No. 1.

Over in Congress, Republicans have literally wasted more than a year wrongly blaming the sour economy on EPA, instead of addressing the real causes for our economic meltdown. The tally so far: 191 votes taken in the House to undermine environmental protections.

(Hint to House GOP: Keeping our air and water and lungs clean didn’t hurt our economy. Government standards didn’t either. The real cause of the worst recession since the Great Depression was an overheated real estate market, fueled by lax government oversight of lending and financial markets. That, in turn, prompted massive corporate layoffs and plummeting consumer confidence).

Politically, it would have been much easier for Obama to simply avoid the EPA amid all the Tea Party fueled rhetoric and flat-our lies we’ve been forced to hear about it in Congress and on the campaign trail.

But unlike the GOP candidates, the president is echoing not what short-sighted campaign pollsters and contributors want him to say, but what the majority of mainstream Americans say they want and need – clean water, clean air and protection from polluters.?While GOP candidates are busy trying to outdo one another doing the dirty work of Big Polluters, President Obama is showing he’s for defending public health and the agency charged with enforcing the bedrock environmental laws that helped make our country great.

His visit shows we don’t have to follow the GOP backward to a time when we didn’t have the agency and its protections; back to a time when our rivers were so polluted they caught on fire and our skies were so choked with smog we couldn’t breathe.

It shows the sort of leadership we need in this country.

API’s Next Sham Campaign

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle -

Today the American Petroleum Institute launched its latest attack on our great nation with their “Vote 4 Energy” or “I vote” campaign.

At the campaigns unveiling, API President Jack Gerard explained, “We are doing this because an electorate that is educated on energy issues will demand of all candidates, for every office, a commitment to honest common-sense discussions of how we can achieve energy security…”

I look forward to engaging in that discussion with Gerard and candidates for office because the electorate has been pretty clear what they want:

A Pew poll done last year found that 71 percent of Americans believe “This country should do whatever it takes to protect the environment.”  And 59% believe that “strongly.” The same poll found that 63 percent favored prioritizing clean energy, such as wind and solar. Only 29 percent favored expanding exploration and production of fossil fuels.

A more recent poll from November by the Washington Post and Pew Research Center found that 68 percent favor developing solar, wind, and hydrogen, only 26 percent oppose it. This compares to 58 percent who favor drilling offshore or on federal lands, and 35 percent who oppose it.  Support for nuclear energy is supported by only 39 percent of Americans while 53 percent are still opposed.

Voter support is even stronger when it comes to cleaning up pollution caused by fossil fuels. A poll conducted by Ceres on behalf of a coalition of investors, environmental, and public interest organizations found that 75 percent of voters think the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), not Congress, should determine air pollution standards. 88 percent of Democrats, 85 percent of Independents, and 58 percent of Republicans oppose Congress stopping the EPA from enacting new limits on air pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Mr. Gerard implies that somehow Americans aren’t having an honest discussion about energy but I don’t think Mr. Gerard, with his $4.31 million salary and corporate perks, has any idea what normal people are talking about and how honest or dishonest the conversation is. In fact, API spent almost $6 million last year lobbying Members of Congress to continue their oily ways.

Despite API’s expenditures, voters are pretty clear what they want. I am sure that API will spend a lot of money spreading falsehoods in 2012 (like this one, this one, and this one) to further scare politicians beholden to corporate interests who don’t want to pay to clean up their messes. But if your audience is truly the public, Mr. Gerard, let’s have this debate.

I vote and my kid’s health and our country’s economic future matter way more to me then your bottom line. I am betting that there are millions of other voters just like me.

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.