Grassroots green groups are mobilizing to try to protect EPA from the knives of budget-slashing House Republicans.
“The unprecedented assault on clean air and water proposed by the leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives in its continuing resolution (H.R. 1) would risk the health and environment of American families by gutting key environmental protections, including the Clean Air Act, and slashing EPA budget by $3 billion, the largest cut in 30 years” said Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network.
“The proposed continuing resolution would bar EPA from taking any action to clean up dangerous global warming pollutants from coal-fired power plants and other stationary sources,” Rogers said “At a time when we are already witnessing more flooding, increased heat waves, unhealthy air and the spread of infectious disease as a result of climate change, we cannot give away safeguards that protect the public, provide for jobs, and create innovation. EPA must be able to prevent tens of thousands of people a year from asthma attacks, lung disease and heart attacks.”
The GOP House Leadership is seeking “massive reductions” in funding that will handicap the ability of the U.S. renewable energy industry to compete globally, according to Earth Day Network.
“Innovative renewable energy programs that promote wind and solar power, green buildings, and electric cars and fuel cells would be cut by 40 percent,” said Rogers. “Instead of cutting research and development for alternative energy and solutions to climate change, Congress needs to focus on measures to stimulate growth in a low-carbon green economy, or the U.S. will be left behind as other countries accelerate their development. We cannot rely on 19th-century technology to fuel our 21st-century future.”
