Update on Sept. 23 – “The House today showed they have bought the false argument that we need to choose between protecting lives and creating jobs. Now we need the Senate and the President to protect our right to breathe.” From the Natural Resources Defense Council to the League of Women Voters to the American Lung Association, organizations that care about clean air are urging the Senate to reject ” the Single Greatest Roll-Back of Clean Air Protections in U.S. History.” Help them. Contact your Senator today.
There is a train. Next week this runaway train is on a collision course with the landmark legislation designed to keep our air clean and our children healthy. That train is, literally, the TRAIN Act of 2011, and next week, the House will vote on a bill (HR 2401) that was designed to cripple Clean Air Act regulations and intimidate the Environmental Protection Agency.
We need more voices to stand up for clean air today! Tell your representative to oppose the TRAIN Act today!
The TRAIN Act is a delay tactic created to protect polluters’ right to pollute. This is about Big Coal buying the right to poison our children’s hearts, lungs, and brains.
photo credit: Bruno & Lígia Rodrigues
If you can believe it, there are politicians whose stated goal is to block any and all environmental protections-at the cost of our children’s health. Mercury, lead, arsenic, acid gases-these are the poisons spewing from coal plants that EPA-in any administration-is required by law under the Clean Air Act to regulate. Clean air regulations save hundreds of thousands of lives, and cut health care costs by trillions of dollars.
In a state that has the highest adult asthma rate and the asthma rates continue to rise. In some parts of my state, up to 14% of all children have asthma. Oregon ranks high in breast and skin cancers, strokes and suicides, autism and Alzheimer’s – reasons for why we rank so high are unknown, but new research indicates coal power plants may play a part. We can’t stand to see any more air pollution coming our way.
Don’t let politicians further pollute our air – tell your representative that the TRAIN Act is dangerous and inexcusable. Our children need everyone to take action to stop this legislation now.
A Few Facts:
- The TRAIN Act is the centerpiece of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s recently announced legislative agenda, which is stacked with measures to weaken public health and clean air standards.
- The TRAIN act (H.R. 2401) would prevent EPA from going forward with two crucial steps for cleaner air – the Mercury and Air Toxics standards for power plants, and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule to cut smog and soot pollution from power plants.
- The TRAIN Act would indefinitely delay these standards. That means indefinitely delaying the clean-up of dangerous pollution including mercury, soot, cancer-causing dioxins and acid gases.
- This legislation would sacrifice tens of thousands of lives, pollute the air we breathe, and expose our children, families, and communities to toxic air pollutants that cause illness and developmental disorders, particularly in small children and the unborn.
- The TRAIN act allows 23,500 avoidable premature deaths every year
- The bill also creates additional red-tape delays that tie the hands of EPA health and science professionals.
- Supporters of the bill claim it will save jobs, but they are wrong. Putting more pollution in our air does not create jobs – but it does put millions of American families at risk.
- In fact, EPA estimates that the two standards the TRAIN Act stops would have a net impact creating over 9,000 jobs, with health benefits that will save Americans hundreds of billions of dollars each year once fully implemented.
- Blocking these standards for just one additional year would result in:
- up to 25,300 lives lost due to smog, soot, and toxic air pollution;
- more than 11,000 heart attacks;
- more than 120,000 asthma attacks;
- over 12,200 more hospital and emergency room visits; and
- many hundreds of thousands more days of missed work or school.
The question now is, what are you willing to do about it? Will you take action to stop the TRAIN Act before it’s too late?