Getting Serious about Clean Air

 By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director EPA's proposal for controlling industrial carbon pollution from new and modified power plants is a welcome step forward. The Administration is taking common sense steps to protect from climate change and air pollution and to lead the way to a clean energy future.  The proposed rules are a significant step – but only a first step – toward heading off the worst impacts of climate change. Remember that many of these impacts are on our water resources. As one Clean Water Action Board member has always said, “Climate change is water change.” EPA proposed these new limits based on a finding that the climate change caused by industrial carbon pollution endangers human health. Increased asthma attacks and respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses are caused by air pollutants like soot and are only some of the negative effects of industrial carbon pollution. These limits for new and modified power plants, a giant step toward a healthier future,  have been issued under the Clean Air Act’s New Source Performance Standards program, which controls hazardous air pollution from industrial sources.  It should be a no brainier, but the proposal already faces opposition in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Remember, this is the most anti-environmental Congress in history. It's an election year. You can be sure that we'll be holding elected officials accountable if they oppose programs that prevent dangerous illness in our most vulnerable people – children, the elderly and other most susceptible to air pollutants – and that protect our water and other resources from the potentially devastating impacts of climate change. Will you join us?