Despite the fact that I knew, in real time, how many members of Congress were voting to wipe out protections for our water, supporting an agenda to walk back action on climate, and putting the short-term profits of campaign donors before the needs of the public, I was a little shocked at the terrible scores.
When legislators and government agencies make decisions, we request they consider my generation’s future and the potential of our lives, and those that will come after. A life riddled and intertwined with the threats of this heavy metal was not what our parents had in mind, yet it is what we face. We urge state and federal governments to protect us from these dangers and allow us to live our lives free of the effects of mercury and we call upon them to make decisions to ensure that our children are the first generation that is truly protected from mercury exposure.
President Trump and Acting Administrator Wheeler are ditching a carefully crafted program that addressed the climate crisis. They are putting our health at risk, and our future, by catering to their fossil fuel industry cronies. This is bad attempt to prop-up 20th century energy companies while trying to slow the transition to clean energy.
There is alot going on. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Do-Nothing proposal around chemical leaks and spills into water deserves attention.
Today is a big day for clean water -- a federal court told the Trump administration that it went too far when it suspended enforcement of protections for streams and wetlands. Clean Water Action, along with more than a dozen other plaintiffs, challenged EPA's illegal 2-year suspension of the Clean Water Rule. And we won.
Imagine living near an industrial facility with aboveground storage tanks and not knowing what is in those tanks. What if hazardous chemicals were stored in those tanks and that leaks or spills could contaminate a lake where you fish or swim, or a river that is also your drinking water source. Wouldn’t you want to know that water in your community is protected?
Last year, we worked with the Keep Antibiotics Working Coalition to mobilize to phase out the practice of feeding healthy animals antibiotics. In the United States, approximately 70% of antibiotics human use are sold for use on animals. These drugs are often fed to animals that aren't sick in order to prevent disease. This routine use of antibiotics contributes to the breeding and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These bacteria can then travel off the farm and into our communities.
The Massachusetts legislative session ended on July 31st. Overall, it was a controversial session that has been characterized as much by what didn’t happen as by what did. The two environmental actions taken by the legislature this session were environmental justice funding in the state budget, and a compromise clean energy bill. They also passed an environmental bond bill, but it is not clear how much it will raise and what impacts it will have.
Tomorrow across Michigan, voters will be head to the polls to cast ballots for candidates that represent their values and priorities.