Bush Admin Attack on Clean Air Act

To the Editor,

With our nation at war, it’s very easy to miss some of the most misguided and dangerous policies that the Bush administration is enacting here at home. Chief among them is a broadside attack on our most basic public health safeguards, such as the Clean Air Act.

Wisconsin is a state that prides itself on its natural beauty, on hunting and fishing opportunities, and on respecting and protecting our land, water, and air. Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you that clean air and clean water are crucial to our way of life, and that air and water pollution are unfortunate evils. Simply put, smog is disgusting.

Yet the Bush administration’s EPA has proposed a rule change in the Clean Air Act that would allow 17,000 plants across the country, including over 600 facilities in Wisconsin, to pollute more in each of the coming years. Smog causes asthma; soot weakens the heart and lungs; carbon dioxide contributes to global warming; and mercury can cause neurological disorders in as-yet-unborn babies. All four pollutants come from power plants. For all the power companies’ money and lobbying, we here in the public get to inhale more smog and soot, to see more fish contaminated with mercury.

It’s sickening, literally. And with Earth Day arriving on April 22, it’s time to tell the EPA that we won’t let them slip another handout to polluters underneath our radar. Stop the rollbacks of the New Source Review provision of the Clean Air Act by calling the EPA comment line at (919) 541-0211 to leave a message. Your two cell phone minutes could mean saving a child from asthma, or saving a pregnant mother from ingesting too much mercury. The power companies have made their voices heard. It’s time for the administration to hear ours.

Sincerely,

Josh Zaharoff

WISPIRG campus organizer
2526 N. Farwell Ave. #2
Milwaukee, WI 53211
(414) 975-5382

Riverwest Currents - Volume 2 - Issue 5 - May 2003