clean air // Current TV

Senate Defeats Rand Paul's attempt to make air dirtier

Environmental Defense Fund email/press release: Very exciting news. Moments ago,... more

attilatheblond
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3 months ago
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Regulations: Killing Jobs or Saving Lives?

Americans gain more than a trillion dollars in economic benefits every year thanks to... more

StewSteve
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5 months ago
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House GOP Bill Would Roll Back Basic Air-Pollution Rules

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Friday on a bill that's mushroomed recently into a plan to block the Obama administration's two main rules to clean up air pollution from power plants and change the way the Clean Air Act has worked for 40 years.

House Republicans who crafted the bill say environmental regulations harm economic competitiveness. In recent days, they've added amendments that would stop new air-pollution regulations that operators of coal-fired electric plants have objected to for years. Environmental and health groups call it an extreme attack on the air pollution law.

The amendments would eliminate two air pollution rules for power plants that are nearly ready to go into effect after years of delays. It also would require the Environmental Protection Agency to base acceptable levels of pollution on economic, as well as health, considerations.

"The complaint is that EPA does all the benefits, many of which are questionable, but has refused to look at the collective cost or (electric) reliability impacts," said Jeff Holmstead, a lobbyist for the electric power industry who was the EPA's air administrator during the George W. Bush administration.

The EPA has said it plans to take the combined effects of the upcoming rules into account as far as it legally can.

The TRAIN Act — for Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation — began as a requirement for a new federal committee to analyze the cumulative effects of environmental regulations before they take effect, but amendments have expanded its reach.

One, by Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, would force the EPA to redo the two pending regulations: One would reduce air pollution that crosses state lines in the Eastern half of the country, and the second would limit mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from power plants for the first time nationwide.

Whitfield said earlier this year that he was "especially concerned about what impact these rules will have on the coal producers in my state and the jobs tied to the industry that plays such a vital role in meeting our energy demands, as well as the impact on electricity consumers."

The interstate pollution rule is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The EPA estimated it would save up to 34,000 lives a year. The mercury and air toxics rule, which is to be finalized by November, is expected to save 17,000 lives a year.

Air pollution can trigger asthma attacks and increase the risk for lung diseases, heart attacks and strokes.

more at link...The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Friday on a bill that's... more

WakeUpPeople
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5 months ago
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Mr. Hankey Explains Global Warming

As the shit hits the fan, Mr. Hankey Explains Global Warming

omnipotentpoobah
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5 months ago
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Weekly Mulch: Cost-Cutting at the Environment's Peril

by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger In Washington, the environment is under... more

MediaConsortium
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10 months ago
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California Sabotage- Prop 23 ( Interactive Video )

Great job on this. This deception cannot stand.

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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Prop 23: A Proposition Against Clean Energy

A state ballot box is the current battleground in national and international efforts to reduce global warming pollution. Fueled by millions of oil industry dollars, Proposition 23 asks California voters to repeal the historic Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which has helped to lure billions of dollars in clean energy investments and create thousands of jobs.

What makes this fight most critical is that unlike national clean energy legislation or an international agreement to reduce global warming pollution, California has a solution that already exists. And it's working.

If Californians reject Prop 23, it will send a strong signal to the nation and the world that demand for action on global warming in the U.S.'s most populous state—long a bellwether on environmental issues—is alive and well. A victory over Prop 23 will renew momentum in other states and at the national level for concrete actions to reduce global warming pollution, which can only help in future rounds of international negotiations.

The primary backers of Prop 23 are Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp.—two Texas oil companies whose operations include polluting oil refineries in California—and the Koch brothers, shadowy oil barons who over the years have written checks for many efforts to assail global warming science.

The opponents of Prop 23, however, are a far more diverse bunch. The coalition includes business associations, groups and leaders, labor unions, faith organizations, health professionals and environmental groups, Earthjustice included. George Shultz, who served President Reagan as Secretary of State, is co-chairman of the campaign to defeat Prop 23.

We are united by a vision that clean, renewable energy is the best way to protect our health, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and drive economic growth. And California's clean energy economy is thriving.

Roughly $9 billion in private investment has poured into the state since Gov. Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act. While other industries in the state have lost jobs, California's green economy has been adding them. More than 500,000 Californians are employed in jobs connected to the clean energy sector, including 93,000 in manufacturing and 68,000 in construction.

But those jobs—indeed, California's entire clean energy economy—are at risk if Prop. 23 passes. California's Global Warming Solutions Act assures investors of a stable investment climate for clean energy in the state for years to come. Without such assurances, investors will take their money elsewhere, most likely overseas to China, Japan and other nations that are aggressively pursuing clean energy technology.

It is short-sighted and senseless to throttle the one sector of California's economy that is currently growing by leaps and bounds. Instead, we should be looking for every opportunity to transplant what is happening in California to other states, in order to drive economic growth, fight global warming, and protect our communities. California, after all, doesn't have to be the only state to reap the benefits that come from a strong law to reduce global warming pollution.A state ballot box is the current battleground in national and international efforts... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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Fresh Blogging: The Top 50 Clean Air Advocacy Blogs

Air pollution is also known for worsening the conditions of those with cystic fibrosis... more

eva2
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1 year ago
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Breathe Easier: 12 Houseplants to Purify Indoor Air

NASA and a recent Ted Talk present convincing evidence that indoor air qualitiy can be... more

EKMadrigal
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1 year ago
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Giant Spike Covered Algae Powered Skyscraper Filters Polluted City Air

The ‘City Respiration Skyscraper’ might look malicious with its spiky... more

Omnomynous
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1 year ago
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Tell Sen. Kerry: Don't sell out the Clean Air Act

Credo asking for action: Tell Sen. Kerry: Don't sell out the Clean Air Act... more

futuregen
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1 year ago
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6 comments

The Balloon

A short emotional story about the downfall of pollution

stephshruti
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2 years ago
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2 comments

070209 ep.#6: Live Healthy? Find Peace? Judge Not?

I'm interested to know why you get up in the morning, what you're working... more

stephenthomson
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2 years ago
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2 comments

Need to recharge your brain? Step outside. A little Green goes a long way

In our increasingly urbanized world, it turns out that a little green can go a long... more

ClipsFC
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2 years ago
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13 Chinese cities giving hybrid vehicles subsidies

In an unprecedented turn, 13 cities have become ‘test cities’ for the... more

mundosanto
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3 years ago
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Environmental Action Home

A great way to stay actively involved in energy and environmental issues with links to... more

wholefreespirit
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3 years ago
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Vehicles Powered Completely By Air (NO JOKE)

Like never before I need a second opinion... Is this for real?! (Where is Russell... more

onepeacefullight
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3 years ago
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12 comments

Bishop Thomas Skrenes - EPA Great Lakes Challenge: "We are all environmentalists"

Bishop praises interfaith success of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge

Marquette, Michigan - A Lutheran Bishop who has participated in interfaith Earth Day recycling projects for four years in a row said.
"Celebrate - what a great day Earth Day has been 2008," said Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "The Earth Healing Initiative has been a great success this year."
"Congratulations Earth Healers - you've done it, it has been a success," Bishop Skrenes said. "The EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge has been a great success."
"Computers have been recycled, pharmaceuticals have been brought together for proper disposal," Skrenes said. "Congratulations to those members of the faith communities and others who have been a part of this."
"We are all environmentalists," said Skrenes of Marquette, MI. "All of us want clean air to breathe, all of us want clean drinking water. We all enjoy the outdoors and nature."
"No matter our political understandings are, no matter where we are on the liberal and conservative line - no matter what we think of any of the big issues facing thee one of us - world today - all of us can agree that it is in all of our interests."
"We can all certainly conserve and save and bring back and then give to the next generation what has been given to us."
Bishop Skrenes said interfaith environment projects like the challenge ensure a better future for all humans.
"It is a sign of great significance that people can join hands and work together," Skrenes said.
Bishop Skrenes thanked the EPA, faith communities and "people of goodwill throughout the upper Midwest who have been a part of this work."
"Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency for their help and assistance in all of this work," Bishop Skrenes said. The EPA challenge "has been a part of the lives and will be a part of the future of this whole area."
"It is a wonderful opportunity to begin to look at what it is that we hold in common," Skrenes said. "What we hold in common is this wonderful Great Lakes basin."
"This is a wonderful place with lakes and streams and forests everywhere in the Midwest, and the great plains and the great fields," Skrenes said. "We have been a part of saving some of this and making a difference."
"Sometimes we become so focused on what divides us, what disconnects us, what separates us - and there are important things that sometimes do that - but yet we can all have loyalty and allegiance to this world that has been our home and this of the world that we have been blessed with by God."
"God has given us the privilege of living here in the midst of these lakes and all of this beautiful nature," Skrenes said.
"When people of faith, whether they be of Christian traditions or of other traditions, gather together to work on what connects us. One of those things that connects us is respect and awe for the creation that surrounds us."
"We are part of a movement together in these early years of the Twenty-first Century to save what has been given to us by the generations before us and what God has provided to us," Skrenes said.
Bishop Skrenes is one of nine faith leaders who signed the Earth Keeper Covenant in northern Michigan in 2004 that lead to many interfaith projects.
The Cedar Tree Institute co-founded the interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that works closely with ten faith traditions on a wide range of environment projects that include college students, at-risk teens, American Indian tribes and others.
The EHI is developing the same relationship with faith communities across the Great lakes.
The faith communities include Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, the Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers) and Zen Buddhist.
"Everyday is Earth Day," Skrenes said.Bishop praises interfaith success of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge... more

Yoopernewsman
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3 years ago
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Bush May Ease Clean Air Rules For Nat'l Parks

The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that... more

Future_America
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3 years ago
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4 comments

California VS. The EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency denied California's application for a waiver... more

devo64
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4 years ago
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1 comment

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