EPA: 100 million breathing harmful air

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Twenty-two states are being put on notice that air quality in many of their counties is unhealthy because of tons of microscopic soot from power plants, diesel-burning trucks, cars and factories.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that 243 counties -- mostly in the eastern third of the country -- will probably be found in violation of the federal air standard for soot.

State officials will have to develop plans aimed at cutting the pollution by 2010 or 2015, depending on the severity of the air quality problem, or face sanctions, including possible loss of highway funds.

Reducing microscopic soot, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt told reporters, is "the single most important action we can take to make our air healthier."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/30/air.quality.ap/index.html

[tom_paine]

1. Lies Lies Lies

That must mean that 200 million people are breathing harmful air.

Or it means that the small "honest part" of the EPA is still putting out reports and announcements.

How much happier we'll all be when the Busheviks crush even that spark of resistance to Imperial Rule!

</sarcasm off>

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. True. ONe can't take anything put out by the EPA at face value anymore.

[Jack_DeLeon]

3. Ionic Breeze commercial?

I just heard an ionic breeze commercial on the tv, just thought that coincidence was funny.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. *l* Welcome to DU.

[MisterP]

9. I think I know that rottweiler

associated with "unwelcome odors"

[redqueen]

4. How odd

NPR had a story last week during evening drive time claiming that the EPA reported that pollution was decreasing. I remember thinking at the time that I just need to give up and just listen to music.
:crazy:

[tom_paine]

7. In other news, "Up" is now reportedly "down"

"Slavery" is now officially "freedom".

Etc.

[G_j]

5. oh come on

aren't we going to give the "Clean Skies Initiative" a chance?

[Zorra]

8. Bu$h: Cancerous Conservatism. Kerry: Environmental Hero

A vote for Bu$h is a vote for death. (John Kerry, OTOH, was designated an environmental hero by the League of Conservation Voters)

Bush Receives “F” For Environmental Issues on LCV 2003 Presidential Report Card

“President Bush is well on his way to compiling the worst environmental record of any president in the history of our nation,” said Callahan. “Bush’s dismal Report Card is dominated by a disturbing trend: time after time, Bush favors corporate interests over the public’s interest in a clean, safe and healthy environment. Under the Bush administration, corporate polluters have been allowed to write the laws.”

The Report Card found that, since taking office, Bush has assaulted environmental protections on all fronts, including air, water, land and wildlife. In particular, the Bush administration has attacked, weakened or undermined laws providing clean air, clean water, and toxic waste cleanups. Primary beneficiaries of these actions have been timber, mining, oil and gas, and real estate development companies.

The Bush administration has also targeted a series of complex regulations that barely register on the American public’s radar screen to drastically reduce clean air and water protections, and increase industry exploitation of public lands, the Report Card reveals.

The administration has proposed regulatory changes, for example, to weaken a significant provision of the Clean Air Act called “new source review,” which currently requires older, more polluting industrial plants to upgrade pollution controls when they renovate or expand in such a way that increases emissions of pollutants.

http://www.lcv.org/News/News.cfm?ID=1658&c=26

Environmentalists for John Kerry

John Kerry has been a leader in the environmental movement throughout his career. Kerry was called the Senate’s most outspoken environmentalist and was named an Environmental Hero by the League of Conservation Voters. In 1970 he helped organize the Massachusetts’ first Earth Day, then led the fight against acid rain in the northeast as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. He helped defeat efforts to roll back the environmental accomplishments of a generation whether in the form of regulatory reform or efforts to drill in national monuments and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And Kerry led the effort to make environmental preservation a global priority through comprehensive treaties and pushing for the inclusion
of important environmental protections in free trade agreements.

Here is some of what John Kerry has done and will do to protect America’s environment:

Continue the Fight for Clean Air: John Kerry is a leader in addressing the problem of acid rain and air pollution. His work led to the passage of tougher smog standards in the Clean Air Act of 1990. And he fought hard to block the efforts that would weaken the Clean Air Act and joined a bipartisan proposal to limit mercury, sulfur, nitrogen and carbon dioxide (commonly called the Four Pollutant Bill) from power plants.

Provide Clean and Safe Drinking Water: John Kerry worked to guarantee cleaner and safer drinking water by strengthening the Safe Drinking Water Act, and fought efforts to weaken it. Most recently Kerry voiced his strong opposition to President Bush’s attempt to rollback drinking water standards for arsenic. According to the National Academy of Sciences, arsenic in drinking water may cause cancer, damage heart and blood vessels and contribute to birth defects. Fortunately, the Bush Administration reversed course and implemented the original proposal toreduce arsenic in drinking water.

http://s87058197.onlinehome.us/

[MisterP]

10. Industry groups have vigorously fought the tougher soot standard,

fearing it would push scores of counties that successfully had worked to meet the old standard into sudden violation of the federal healthy air requirements.
‘The stigma (of noncompliance) could threaten thousands of American jobs’ as businesses shun counties faced with new pollution control burdens, said Jeffrey Marks of the National Association of Manufacturers, urging the EPA to move cautiously in making final designations later this year.

In other words, don't report a danger in a place if it woud restrict absolute profits.

[Karenina]

11. What will it take for you to understand?

The *misadministration PROFIT$$$ when you are sick and dying. This is why their cronies get carte blanche by the "rules" they enact to POISON YOU. It's a win-win for them. YOU pay for the cleanup and they deny you healthcare unless you're able to PAY into their "system." No nasty pictures or well-kept records. Fewer to oppose them as all are consigned to wage slavery to keep hearth and home together... WHAT IS NOT TO GET HERE?

[amazona]

12. they're killing my family

Several family members live in the affected counties. Words can't express how angry I am about this issue. You are brainwashed for a lifetime to be thin and exercise. If you exercise outdoors in these areas, you might as well schedule your bypass surgery right now. Being "healthy" didn't help my family, it put us at greater risk. At the very least, if they won't clean up the air, stop telling people to get exercise, it's killing them.

I have even witnessed people jogging outdoors in southern California, even during fires! Maybe this was a safe practice 50 years ago but it's simply insane now. People need to inform themselves. Thin people get heart disease too, and jogging or other heavy exercise outside in some of these counties is just as bad as smoking cigarettes.

I'm really angry about this. We have no choice but to breathe. Why should I pay in years off my life when I don't even get one single share of stock from these companies polluting our air? Is there no way to make them pay, to sue them as tobacco companies have been sued?

Where is the justice?

[cthrumatrix]

13. ask repugs if they "use" the same air...? don't they care?