WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–November 10, 2011. The Senate today rightly stopped two more assaults on clean air aimed at voiding the Environmental Protection Agency’s protections against dangerous smog, soot, mercury and other toxic pollution.
S. 1720, sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was aimed at stopping the EPA from cleaning up harmful air pollution such as mercury, soot, smog, arsenic and lead from some of the country’s biggest polluters. The McCain legislation also included the REINS Act, a radical measure that would overturn the entire system to create new safeguards. Separately, a resolution (S.J. Res. 27) by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) would have stuck down the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that’s designed to protect Americans from smog and soot pollution that comes from power plants in neighboring states.
The following is a statement from John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council:
“Just last week the Senate rejected a suite of Tea-Party inspired rollbacks to our health and safety protections, and fortunately it did so again today. The Senate is voting in line with what Americans already know to be true: pollution doesn’t create jobs, it kills people.”
And for more information on the legislation, see John Walke’s blog here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jwalke/
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Livingston, Montana, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org
