Protect EPA

Protect EPA?

We shouldn’t have to say it, or do it. EPA – the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – is supposed to protect us.

Yet, the EPA is under siege. And if we don’t help protect it, it won’t be around to protect us.

The threats EPA faces is real.

The new Administrator of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, has a long track record of suing EPA and trying to overturn the very laws he is now supposed to enforce. And as thousands of his newly released private emails show, he’d rather protect oil and gas polluters  than you or me. These are the same industries that are working to undercut our country’s efforts to stop climate change, keep our air safe to breathe, and our water safe to drink.

Members of Congress openly oppose EPA doing its job – so much so that Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida has introduced a bill to terminate the EPA as of December 31, 2018.

President Trump continues to attack EPA and the environmental laws and regulations it’s supposed to oversee.  Though he’s only been in office for a month, already he has allowed coal companies to delay cleaning up their polluted mining sites. He has given mining companies permission to dump their toxic waste into our streams and rivers. He has also okayed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, despite well-documented concerns about the potential for the pipeline to leak and pollute drinking water.

Read More: Exploding Coal Mines, Crashing Oil Tankers Make Clear the Need for New, Clean Energy

In short, Pres. Trump is happily giving toxic industries permission to pollute your water, your air, and your planet, your health — and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — be damned.

That’s just wrong.

It’s wrong to pollute our drinking water with toxic chemicals that could give us cancer.

It’s wrong to pollute our air with toxic emissions that give us asthma and respiratory failure.

It’s wrong not to do everything possible to stop climate change.

It’s wrong to pollute the planet, destroying Nature and the natural systems that sustain our lives, and the biological systems we need to thrive.

And it’s wrong to undercut the federal agency that’s been designated to keep us safe.

Thanks to EPA, the environment has gotten cleaner. Our air has gotten healthier.

Take a look at these photos pulled together by MomsCleanAirForce.org. They document how polluted our air was before the Clean Air Act was passed, when industries “treated our skies and water as cesspools.”

Does anyone really want to go back to a time like this? I sure don’t. And I can’t imagine you do, either.

That’s why we need to stand up for EPA: to protect the agency that’s been protecting us since it was created in 1970 – by a Republican president, no less.

CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
URGE THEM TO PROTECT EPA

Here’s what you can do:

First and foremost, contact your two U.S. Senators and your Representative in Congress. Let them know you support keeping a strong EPA working on our behalf to fulfill its mission to protect the environment and human health.

Find addresses for the President, Members of the U.S. Congress, state governors, state legislators, U.S. mayors and county executives all at USA.gov.

Second, attend town hall meetings with your Senators and Representative. Take friends and family with you. Make signs. Talk to the media. Make sure your elected officials know that you want them to protect EPA.

Check their website or phone their office to find out when they have a town hall scheduled. Or, ask when they’ll be back in their district and what their office hours are for meeting with constituents.

Want to see what it looks like to successfully use town halls to pressure Senators? Paige Wolf at SpitThatOutTheBook.com has documented her success organizing folks to hold Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) accountable. If she can do it, so can you!

We need the EPA.

But if we want it, we need to protect it.

Whether your Members of Congress are Democrats or Republicans, tell them today that if they want to protect their jobs, you expect them to protect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The post Protect EPA Against Efforts to Shut It Down appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Why should you tell your Senator to vote NO on Scott Pruitt for EPA?

Here are the 12 best reasons I’ve come up with. What are yours?

Trump Recap

When Donald Trump attained the presidency, my heart sank. As a woman, mother, and citizen, I feel personally violated by this man and all he represents.

But as someone who has worked to protect the environment for almost four decades, I also was discouraged because I knew what we’d be up against.

Trump has shown total disregard for Nature and the environment in the way he’s run his businesses.

He believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.

And in his first environmental act as president-elect, he’s nominated the worst person possible to head the United States Environmental Protection Agency: Scott Pruitt, the attorney general for the state of Oklahoma.

Pruitt has a long record of suing the very agency he’d be charged with administering and endangering the very environment he’d be charged with protecting.

Rather than enforce the laws and regulations under his purview, he’d strive to dismantle them.

Rather than prioritize our health, the health of our kids, and the health of our planet, he’d protect the industries that jeopardize our health.

Though the president nominates a person to head the EPA, the Senate must confirm the nominee. Last week, as part of Moms Clean Air Force, I met with staff members for Senators who will vote on that confirmation either in the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, or in the full Senate chamber (Here’s a picture of “The Force” at work! I’m in the back row, 3rd from the right, in case you can’t tell).

I gave them 12 reasons why they should vote NO on Scott Pruitt for EPA.

I offer this list to you, as well. Please use the links above or below this post to share it on your social media, with your friends and colleagues, and with your own Senator.

Pruitt has been nominated, but he should not be confirmed.

Why Tell Your Senator to Vote NO on Scott Pruitt for EPA?

Because you want to breathe clean air – Pruitt has sued the EPA to overturn standards to curb mercury and other toxic air pollutants that will prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths and 130,000 asthma attacks per year.  He has sued to void standards to reduce soot and smog pollution projected to prevent up to 15,000 non-fatal heart attacks, 34,000 premature deaths, and 400,000 asthma attacks every year. These lawsuits are bad news for all Americans, but especially the more than 24 million Americans with asthma.

Because you want to drink clean water – Pruitt has sued the EPA to overturn clean water safeguards for more than half the nation’s waterways, including streams that feed into the drinking water supplies of 117 million Americans.  He even sued to block limits on water pollution into the Chesapeake Bay, which has no known connection to Oklahoma.

Because you want to keep your kids safe and healthy – Pruitt refuses to accept research from the American Academy of Pediatrics that mercury, a neurotoxin emitted by power plants when they burn coal, is actually dangerous to developing children or that mercury poses a public health threat. (Here’s the report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and their Committee on Environmental Health if you want to read about mercury in the environment for yourself.)

Because you want to protect Nature and the environment – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency helps protect the natural world by enforcing laws and regulations intended to prevent pollution. A big source of pollution is oil spills, either at the site of an oil operation or from a leaky or ruptured oil pipeline. Since 2002, Pruitt has received more than $300,000 in contributions from the fossil fuel industry. How likely is it that Pruitt would bite the hand that feeds him and rein in the industry that’s been so generous to him? Answer: Not likely at all.

Because you want to protect our national parks – Says the National Parks Conservation Association, “the EPA should not be led by someone who has a history of active opposition to the mission, science and values of the agency it is tasked to uphold…Mr. Pruitt has a long record of …opposition to strong stewardship of these resources.”

Because you want to protect lakes and rivers -As Oklahoma attorney general, reports Moms Clean Air Force, Pruitt shut down his office’s environmental enforcement unit, which investigated issues like water contamination and illegal dumping. That action sent a signal to the most irresponsible elements of industry that there would be few legal consequences for violating clean air and water laws. In place of that enforcement unit, Mr. Pruitt built a multi-million office to crusade against EPA’s public health and environmental safeguards.

Because you want to protect birds, bees and other wildlife – Birds, bees and many other wild animals are threatened by overdevelopment and the excessive use of pesticides. It’s the EPA’s job to keep track of what pesticides are legal to use, and how they’re used. So here’s a chilling fact: Pruitt’s home state of Oklahoma led the nation in pesticide-related illnesses and deaths between 2000 and 2010. As Trump would tweet: Bad! Sad!!

Because you want to eat safe food – Like tuna fish? With or without mercury? If you’re pregnant or have small children, you need to limit how much you eat because mercury pollution from burning coal is falling into our oceans, lakes and rivers and getting concentrated in the bodies of the fish we eat. EPA’s safeguards are actually helping mercury to decline in the Atlantic Bluefin tuna. But Pruitt doesn’t believe mercury poses a threat and in all likelihood would unravel the protections that are making a difference.

Because you want to stop climate change – Pruitt said in his confirmation hearings that he does not believe climate change is a hoax. Nevertheless, as Oklahoma’s attorney general, he sued unsuccessfully to overturn the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases are harmful.  He has also sued to block the EPA from setting any limits on carbon pollution from power plants, the nation’s largest polluter.

By the way:

 More than 97% of scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are due to human activities.

According to a March 2016 Gallup poll, 64% of Americans are worried about climate change.

Also according to Gallup, 65% of Americans believe that human activity is to blame for increases in the Earth’s temperature over the last century.

Because you want to see the U.S. use more solar and wind energy and less coal and oil – The EPA is currently tasked with implementing the Clean Power Plan, which would accelerate America’s transition to renewable, non-polluting energy. Would that transition happen under Pruitt? Hardly. This review in The Guardian calls the attorney general a “staunch advocate for fossil fuels” and “a dream for oil and gas firms…a nightmare for the environment.”

Because you want to live in a country that values people and the planet – No need to explain that one!

Because you want to leave the world a better place for your kids and grandkids – What future do we want for our children, and our children’s children? I believe we want to leave the world a better, safer, healthier place than it is today. That requires not only vigilance to protect the gains we’ve made, but a commitment to do even more to reduce pollution, protect Nature, and link our health and prosperity to a healthy planet. Having an Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency who shares that commitment is essential.

Just Say NO! to Pruitt

One hundred seventy – that’s 170 – environmental organizations have joined together to oppose Pruitt’s nomination to head EPA. In a letter to supporters, the media and Congress, here’s what they conclude about his nomination:

President-elect Trump’s nominee to head the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has actively worked against the mission of the agency
he has been nominated to lead.

He should be rejected by the Senate.

Scott Pruitt’s views and actions run counter to the EPA’s critical mission
to protect our health and the environment.

He is unfit to administer the laws he would be entrusted to enforce.

The Senate should reject his nomination.

Write to your Senator today to urge NO on Pruitt! It’s easy to do on the Moms Clean Air Force website.

The post 12 Best Reasons To Tell Your Senator to Vote NO on Scott Pruitt for EPA appeared first on Big Green Purse.