Not So Fresh, Not So Clean: Another Alaskan Politician Threatening Blue Skies

Last month, the EPA finally, officially, publicly, decided that greenhouse gas emissions do pose a threat to the environment and to human health and wellbeing. Groups like the Environmental Defense Fund said the EPA’s “new” findings would set the stage for long-overdue climate action from the US. But wait! Not so fast! A politician from Alaska – (not that one) – Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), is standing in the way of what action those findings were expected to bring about. She’s sponsored an amendment to the Clean Air Act which would, the Natural Resources Defense Council says, “stop action to reduce America’s oil dependence and to jump-start a vibrant clean energy economy.”

The Senate votes on the amendment just nine days from now – on January 20. If passed, it will severely limit the EPA’s ability to regulate US carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. Tons of enviro groups are up in arms, but the Natural Resources Defense Council has special reason to be concerned. The group’s business is defending and using environmental laws, and the Clean Air Act is one of the major weapons they’ve had in their arsenal for decades.

“The Clean Air Act is a bedrock environmental law with a 40-year track record of cutting dangerous pollution to protect public health and the environment,” said the NRDC in an urgent email blast today.

So picture the backdrop to the cover of that new mocku-biography of Sarah Palin – the one with the lightning and smoggy grey skies behind the politician? All that and more can be ours, if the Senate dismantles the Clean Air Act next week.

Take action by submitting an email template, via the Natural Resources Defense Council, to your senators – you’ll be heard.