Urge the Bush Administration to Keep the Air You Breathe Clean

Under severe pressure from industry lobbyists, President Bush is preparing to weaken our clean air protections. This unprecedented move would allow tons more soot, smog, and toxic pollution to be spewed into our air each year. Want to breathe easier? Help persuade the administration to keep our air clean.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Do Not Weaken Clean Air Act

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am deeply troubled that your administration is preparing to weaken our clean air protections. I urge you not to impair the Clean Air Act by allowing power plants and refineries that increase production to avoid installing modernized pollution controls. We know that weakening New Source Review provisions will seriously increase the amount of harmful soot and smog pollution spewed into our skies.

Please take the health of millions of Americans seriously. As has been detailed in recent studies, this pollution leads to lung and heart problems, triggering asthma attacks, sending people to emergency rooms, and even cutting short the lives of tens of thousands of Americans each year.

We should be moving forward on air pollution, not backward. Dirty power plants and refineries, which have avoided pollution rules for decades, should be required to use the best pollution controls available.

Your administration should reject industry lobbyists' attempts to block enforcement of the Clean Air Act and any proposal that would weaken the Act's new source requirements for future projects.

Please keep our clean air laws strong for us and for future generations.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
February 05, 2002

Background Information

Under heavy-duty pressure from industry lobbyists, the Bush Administration is preparing to weaken our clean air protections by letting the country's biggest polluting facilities -- including outdated power plants and oil refineries -- escape rules that require them to install modern pollution controls. Weakening our clean air laws would allow millions of tons of nasty stuff -- like soot, smog, and toxic pollution -- to be spewed into our air and threaten our health.

The Administration is moving forward with an extensive package of regulatory changes to the Clean Air Act's "New Source Review" (NSR) program. The whole point of the NSR program is to make sure old electric power plants -- which were "grandfathered" in under the Clean Air Act -- live up to today's pollution standards. Under NSR, they are required to install high-tech pollution controls when they update their facilities. Dirty power companies and oil refineries have been working for years to weaken this rule. And the Bush administration's proposals will provide electric utilities with a host of new loopholes to help them avoid living up to modern pollution standards.

This isn't just about grimy clouds floating over big cities. We're talking about a major public health crisis that threatens all of us. The pollution from these plants has been connected to rising asthma attacks, premature deaths, and even brain damage. Unfortunately, lobbyists for the coal, oil and electric power industries don't seem to care. They are working overtime to get the administration to weaken the Clean Air Act and allow these industries to pump out more dangerous emissions. If the polluters succeed, it could mean millions of tons of added pollution and literally thousands of premature deaths.

There is hope. Nothing has been decided and the EPA still has the opportunity to maintain the strongest possible "new source review" regulations. If you want to breathe easier, help persuade the administration to keep our air clean. Use the EarthNet Action Center to send an urgent letter now.

FOR MORE INFO: **Clean the Air Report http://cta.policy.net/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=21520 ** Power Plant Lookup http://www.savethecleanairact.org/public/powerplantlookup/ **Washington Post Article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6057-2002Jan31.html