Pete Altman, in a NRDC Switchboard repost.
Senator James Inhofe is teaming up with Chairman Fred Upton to introduce a bill to allow America’s biggest polluters to continue dumping unlimited amounts of carbon emissions into the air….
Just about every major health group in the United States is now telling Chairman Upton that he is putting the welfare of millions of Americans at risk who suffer from asthma (that’s 24 million people right there – including seven million children!) and other respiratory diseases.
Consider this from the American Lung Association:
The enactment of Chairman Fred Upton’s bill would strip away Clean Air Act protections that safeguard Americans and their families from air pollution that puts their lives at risk. The protections against the health harm from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution are essential to public health and must be preserved. – Charles D. Connor, President and Chief Executive Officer
And it’s not like people back home in the Michigan 6th Congressional District are exactly clamoring for more pollution. The American Lung Association estimates that over 225,000 Michigan children have asthma, a condition made worse and more dangerous by air pollution.
February 2011 survey conducted in Upton’s congressional district found:
- 62% of Upton’s constituents oppose a bill he is sponsoring to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to reduce carbon dioxide and other pollutants;
- 67% “” including 60 percent of Republicans – agreed with the statement that “Congress should let the EPA do its job, ” as opposed to the minority who believe that “Congress should decide” what actions are taken to curb carbon pollution.
- 61% say that “EPA needs to do more to hold polluters accountable and protect the air and water”; and
- 57% favor “the EPA setting new standards with stricter limits on air pollution.”
If you were a member of Congress would you look at the following chart and assume that your constituents are best served by handcuffing the Environmental Protection Agency in its efforts to keep our air as clean as possible?
Of course, the easy Washington answer here is to say “follow the money.”
And it’s worth noting that over the course of his career, Chairman Upton has taken over$750,000 from polluters. But, in some ways, that’s too easy and too cynical an answer. After all, it’s not like all polluters are looking to dismantle the EPA.
As PoliticoPro (subscription required) reported yesterday:
Top power company CEOs rained on the Republican parade Tuesday as Congress eyes legislation forcing an outright halt to EPA climate change rules.
The leaders – from American Electric Power, NextEra Energy, Southern Co. and Dominion Resources – said to varying degrees that they support allowing the EPA to proceed on a “reasonable” time frame on greenhouse gas rules for power plants, petroleum refiners and other major stationary sources.
They also didn’t sound so thrilled with the draft bill pre-empting the EPA that House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) plans to start moving later this spring.
“I think that’s probably a bit strong,” said Michael Morris, president and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based AEP, in an interview at an energy industry conference in Washington. “Congressman Upton is a dear friend and a very strong leader and a visionary elected official, but I think even he knows that that probably isn’t going to happen.”
“I don’t support complete preemption,” Lewis Hay, chairman and CEO of NextEra Energy, a Juno Beach, Fla.-based power company, told POLITICO. “When I look at what EPA has done so far and the position they’ve taken on greenhouse gases, I think it’s actually been pretty moderate.”
So just why is Fred Upton waging this war against 24 million American asthma victims?
– Pete Altman, in a NRDC Switchboard repost.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
It should come as no surprise. War against the EPA and scientists is the modern day shoot the messenger. De funding research is modern day burning of books. Pollution is the weapon of choice for modern day genocide.
These polls so completely contradict voting patterns that it is clear that, whatever people say about the issue, it isn’t really very important to them. If Fred Upton, James Inhofe, and their ilk are to be defeated, something’s going to have to change to reorder voters’ priorities.
Q: How much coke did Charlie Sheen snort?
A; Enough to kill Two and a half men.
Q. How much Koch did Inhofe/Upton bill writers snort?
A: ?
Ideas?
UPTON only cares about protecting an ideology- which is a distorted type of corporatism bordering on fascism. The health and welfare of others has never been a goal of the republican party- its even less important to them now, when the mud is about to hit the fan.
Well — look at Upton’s campaign coffers. Lots from the polluters, and, the medications needed to treat the sick people with asthma and other lung diseases! Obviously ALA can’t match this money, but, Upton needs to be called on pandering to his campaign contributors and the far right in the House.
From Open Secrets:
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00004133
Top 5 Industries, 2009-2010, Campaign Cmte
INDUSTRY…………….TOTAL…….INDIV’S…… PACs
Electric Utilities: $192,600 $23,650 $168,950
Pharmaceuticals $128,700 $9,450 $119,250
Health Professionals $126,152 $8,500 $117,652
TV/Movies/Music $97,850 $12,350 $85,500
Oil & Gas $94,700 $7,450 $87,250
A great yoke: a coke/koch/yoke.
Q: How much coke did Charlie Sheen snort?
A: Enough to kill Two and a half men.
Q. How much Koch did Inhofe/Upton bill writers snort?
Ideas?
A: Two half men.
It is quite clear.
Polls do NOT mean much to GOBP politicians.
MONEY is the prime mover.
Fear Corporate Greed!
Carbon dioxide affects asthma? Who knew?
[JR: Fossil fuel pollution and warming does. You learn something new every day! Or not.]
I think the strategy here is to float outrageous balloons that will make subsequent moves seem like moderate compromises in comparison. I’m not sure it’s the most efficacious strategy, but I can’t help wondering whether having some extreme activists wouldn’t help the science-based movement. That is, it would be nice if there were activists out there so that average republicans could distinguish them from scientists, rather than confusing the two: “scientist-activists”.
The people of Upton’s district really need to be educated about the health consequences of pollution. The Koch money is to insulate him from a serious challenge; is it enough? Only one way to find out.
These Koch heads are really perverting the system. If democracy cannot work because of the power of money, there are other methods. People with nothing left to lose can make a difference. I assume the Koch Bros don’t think they will outlive the viability of their strategy.
From a denier comment at the Huff Post section: “CO2 in the atmosphere is 4 molecules in 10,000. How many of those are from humans? 1…maybe. All it does is make plants grow faster. It’s a benefit if anything.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/04/joe-manchin-epa_n_831574.html
Is it conceivable some deniers think the only C02 being discussed is human-caused, i.e. humans’ exhaling? Perhaps a middle school level science course would help them understand that the current discussion is about C02 emissions from fossil fuel industry, not (man-caused) human lungs.
Of course the Grand Oil Party people deliberately mislead their followers, but for the independent voters out there, is this their misunderstanding?
There are a couple of good articles (subscription required) on ground level ozone issues in today’s Greenwire. In short, science is dictating that EPA tighten ozone limits to protect human health. Most major cities will have periods of non-attainment under standards that are adequately protective, meaning that if more stringent standards are adopted, real efforts to reduce pollution will be necessary. GOP will fight this primarily on the basis of economic harm and there are procedural problems now that are preventing the EPA from using the latest science. Importantly, as this plays out, the standards aren’t needed to protect some obscure critter off in the wilderness somewhere (although we need better standards to protect all plant life per Wit’s End’s blog), but millions of people in all of America’s major cities, particularly children and the elderly. This is coming to a head.
Not sure this will help many, but web addresses for those who can access:
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2011/03/09/1
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2011/03/09/16
Air Pollution: 1980-2009
Carbon Monoxide -80% decrease
Ground level Ozone -30% decrease
Lead -93% decrease
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) -48% decrease
Particulates -27% decrease
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) -76% decrease
Source: EPA
No mention of Carbon Dioxide. I agree a lot of pollutants agravate asthma, but where is medical information that shows CO2 affects asthma? CO2 is always in the lungs and is what causes us to take the next breath without deliberate effort or thought. A severe lack of CO2 brings out the paper bag.
13 gofer: It is the 386,000 tons of particulates and toxic gasses per year from coal fired power plants that causes allergy problems, not the CO2. And by the way, those things hurt you, too. You are not immune to hydrogen cyanide, hydrochloric acid, radium and so on. Read the post from yesterday.
I have never died of an allergic reaction, but other people have. Smoke kills. Smoke also tortures. Wheezing is less bad than waterboarding, but it keeps going on all day long. Th simulate wheezing, fold a new washcloth twice to make it 4 layers thick, soak it in water and clamp it over your nose and mouth. No breaks allowed all day.
Stop the torturing by stopping coal.
160+ Michigan scientists send a letter to our congressional delegation (including Upton!) in support of the EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases:
http://elpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/MI-Scientist-Letter-March-8-2011.pdf
Press release here:
http://tinyurl.com/4q69peo
(My first attempt to post the press release this morning is stuck “in moderation”, was it too long?)
Maybe this little story explains how it is that Congressman Upton is not voting the way his constituents would, for what it’s worth:
Last year friend and I asked a senior staffer in Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown’s Boston office why it was that the new senator’s votes didn’t seem to represent the wishes of his constituents.
The answer went something like this: “Well, if elected officials blindly followed public opinion, then you wouldn’t need them.” Oh, yeah…he’s just doing his job!
goofer (#13) – Whew, I’m glad all we have to worry about is a severe lack of CO2, and I think we’re solving that problem.
You may recall that much of the downtown Atlanta area was closed to traffic for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The Centers for Disease Control observed:
“During the 1996 Summer Olympics Games in Atlanta, when peak morning traffic decreased 23% and peak ozone levels decreased 28%, emergency visits for asthma events in children decreased 42%. At the same time, children’s emergency room visits for causes other than asthma did not change. These results suggest that efforts to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality can also help improve the respiratory health of a community.”
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/healthtopics/airpollution.htm
imhofe and upton should be defeated at the polls. america doesnt need senators like this who want to poison us all. money turns senators heads these days. we all need to work to see that they are defeated. they are a horror for america.