In the face of overwhelming public support for EPA limits on carbon dioxide pollution, opposition to weaken or delay safeguards for air pollution continues to grow.
Yesterday, nearly 2,000 health professionals and more than 2,500 scientists from all 50 states sent separate letters to Congress strongly urging full implementation and enforcement of clean air health measures.
CAP Energy Intern Matt Woelfel has the story. The health professionals asked Congress to
fulfill the promise of clean, healthy air for all Americans to breathe. Support full implementation of the Clean Air Act and resist any efforts to weaken, delay or block progress toward a healthier future for all Americans.
The scientists reiterated that climate change science is clear: global warming presents a clear danger to Americans.
The scientific evidence overwhelmingly suggests that climate change poses a clear threat to public health. Numerous scientific studies…show that if heat-trapping emissions continue unabated, global warming is likely to cause more extreme heat in our cities, severe water shortages, loss of species, hazards to coasts from sea level rise, and extreme weather. The economic and social costs of such impacts are potentially calamitous.
Stripping the EPA of its ability to limit carbon dioxide and other pollutants means more asthma attacks, more respiratory illnesses and disease, and more premature deaths. EPA determined that over the past 40 years, this law prevented 400,000 premature deaths and hundreds of millions of cases of respiratory diseases.
In spite of these truths, yesterday’s Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing featured both Big Oil and Koch Industries representatives who continued to ignore the welfare of the American people because they seek more profits for their companies or benefactors.
EPA estimates that by 2020, the Clean Air Act will have saved more than $2 trillion dollars in health care costs, lost productivity and other economic losses. The benefit-cost ratio is 30 to 1. Doctors, nurses, scientists and others remind Congress that these ill-informed efforts to gut the EPA of its protective safeguards ignore the human toll that inaction will take on our most vulnerable citizens: children, seniors, and those already suffering from ailments.
These are consequences we cannot afford.
— CAP Energy Intern Matt Woelfel