Widespread Support for EPA

Mar 31, 2011

March 31, 2011

Leaders of public health groups, businesses large and small, Latino organizations, former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, and many more are opposed to any limits on EPA’s authority to protect our air and water.

The American Lung Association says:

“If passed by Congress, these amendments would interfere with EPA’s ability to implement the Clean Air Act; a law that protects public health and reduces health care costs for all by preventing thousands of adverse health outcomes, including: cancer, asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, emergency department visits, hospitalizations and premature deaths.”

The CEO of Pacific Gas and Electric and other utility believe EPA’s actions are good for the economy:

“Contrary to the claims that the EPA's agenda will have negative economic consequences, our companies' experience complying with air quality regulations demonstrates that regulations can yield important economic benefits, including job creation, while maintaining reliability.”

Small Green Businesses are also concerned that limiting EPA will hurt the growth of the green sector:

"All the proposals to stop the work already underway to reduce emissions would diminish incentives for the private sector to invest in low-carbon, high-efficiency technologies, hindering much needed economic growth, and deterring job creation in the clean energy sector."

Latino groups understand that Latinos will suffer more if environmental laws are weakened.

"For forty years, the Clean Air Act has protected the health of millions in the United States from dangerous pollutants. For Latinos who often bear the brunt of pollution impacts, these protections mean the difference between costly, debilitating illnesses and a healthy, financially stable life."

Two former EPA chiefs, William D. Ruckelshaus and Christine Todd Whitman, appointed by Presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, write:

“Amid the virulent attacks on the E.P.A. driven by concern about overregulation, it is easy to forget how far we have come in the past 40 years. We should take heart from all this progress and not, as some in Congress have suggested, seek to tear down the agency that the president and Congress created to protect America’s health and environment.”