Legislation to create jobs is moving forward in Congress, and environmental health advocates have a great opportunity to significantly increase the funding to reduce diesel emissions. The request for $1 billion would potentially save or generate 19,000 jobs and increase economic output by over $3 billion.
It is a great opportunity to protect public health, curb greenhouse gases and otherwise protect the environment while putting Americans to work and boosting the economy. Please contact your House representative and two Senators to urge them to support $1 billion in the jobs package to reduce diesel emissions today.
January 11, 2010
The Honorable Harry Reid
Senate Majority Leader
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510Dear Majority Leader Reid:
We are writing as a broad-based group of environmental, health and industry organizations to urge you to include $1 billion for the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2005 ("DERA") in the anticipated jobs package.
Published On:01/11/2010 - 10:57
The potential for fatalities and economic disruption from an attack on one of these plants is staggering. A 2001 U.S. Army Surgeon General study estimated that in densely populated areas 900,000 to 2.4 million people could be killed or injured in a terrorist attack on a U.S. chemical plant in a densely populated area.
Myth 1: The Clean Water Restoration Act (Restoration Act) goes too far - even protecting birdbaths, mud puddles and ditches.
Reality: The Restoration Act does not add any new protections to waters and wetlands beyond those protected under the Clean Water Act prior to 2001.
The Clean Water Act was never meant to protect birdbaths and mud puddles and the Restoration Act will not result in any such thing. The bill simply reaffirms the historic scope of the Clean Water Act as it has been understood by the Congress, the courts and the public since it was passed in 1972.
We can't wait to act on coal ash! Americans deserve clean energy. We shouldn't be poisoned by dirty coal plants and coal ash, and then be asked to foot the bill. Tell the President and the EPA.
Coal ash is a concentrated toxic by-product of burning coal and is a growing problem across the nation. The EPA and the National Academy of Sciences research show that coal ash is toxic, and threatens human health.
Yet Big Coal has been fighting any change to the status quo, lobbying against these proposed regulations and asking the nation’s energy regulators to charge ratepayers for any coal ash cleanup charges.
Don't let the Senate stall progress! Tell them we need strong legislation on climate and energy, not attacks on the Clean Air Act.
Your U.S. Senators could be asked to vote soon on an amendment that could take away the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ability to enforce the Clean Air Act. Late last year, EPA announced that global warming emissions represent a danger to public health just like other forms of air pollution, and that the Clean Air Act needs to be put into action to reduce this pollution.
Clean Water Action is working to strengthen and defend our important laws that protect public health and the environment...but we can't do it without your help.
The science is clear: climate change has already begun to devastate our water resources, and we must act now to head off the worst impacts on public health, on water and other natural resources, and on our economy. Some U.S. Senators and industry lobbyists want to undermine the Clean Air Act. This is a dangerous precedent and flies in the face of what science tells us our government needs to do right now.
Help make sure all of America's waters are protected. Tell your Representative to restore the Clean Water Act!
For three decades, the Clean Water Act protected America's waters from industrial pollution, oil spills, sewage and outright destruction. Recent interpretations of the law have put drinking water sources for 110 million Americans in jeopardy of losing protections.
Big polluters are talking to our Representatives, claiming the Clean Water Act should not cover numerous wetlands, streams, rivers and lakes that have been historically protected. In just one year more than 500 enforcement cases have been dropped by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department.
We cannot go back to the days of dirty water. Congress must reverse this damage and pass legislation to repair the Clean Water Act this year.
Proposed legislation restates and clarifies the original intent of the Clean Water Act - to protect all waters of the United States. Please take a moment to e-mail your Representatives and urge them to send legislation restoring the Clean Water Act to President Obama's desk this year!
Take Action: Tell your Representatives to restore the Clean Water Act.
Do you have just 30 seconds to send an e-mail to your Senators urging them to fix both our climate and our economic crises?
Take action now.
What is it that "We, The People" all want? Clean water, a healthy planet and a clean energy future for America.
Climate and energy legislation are vitally important to the success of our economy and the health our environment. America's energy policy should be driven by clean energy incentives and firm limits on carbon pollution, which will help drive America's economic recovery. We must invest in energy efficient technologies which would create hundreds of thousands of new construction, energy service, and building maintenance and operations jobs by 2020, and ultimately reduce consumers' energy bills.
Federal legislation has been introduced in Congress that would ban the toxic chemical BPA from food and beverage containers.
BPA, first developed as a synthetic sex hormone, can be found in re-useable water bottles, the lining of your soup or soda cans, baby bottles, sippy cups, and other polycarbonate plastic products. It has been shown to leach from containers directly into food and beverages, especially when heated. Why is this a problem?
More than 200 studies have found that low dose exposures to BPA are linked to heart disease, breast and testicular cancers, reproductive problems, and other diseases reaching epidemic proportions in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted research that revealed detectable levels of BPA in the bodies of 93% of Americans.
The Clean Water Act was passed in 1972 to protect all of the nation's waters. Under pressure from polluters and in the wake of murky Supreme Court rulings, the Bush Administration allowed polluters to misuse and pollute many lakes, rivers and streams.
But we have a chance make sure that all of America's waters are protected. It's called the Clean Water Restoration Act.
The United States has some of the best drinking water in the world. So you might think that we know what effect trace amounts of pharmaceuticals have on humans and wildlife once they end up in our water, but we don't.