Environment as pinata: America the Beautiful? House bills have other ideas.

[Divernan]

Friday, July 22, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This week brought the depressing news that Pennsylvania is second only to Ohio in having the worst toxic air pollution in the nation, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Physicians for Social Responsibility. Read it and weep -- weep for your country.

Weep not only because Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are doing everything in their power to delay or stop the so-called Mercury Rule that the Environmental Protection Agency needs to clean the nation's air but also because the EPA and the environment itself are themselves in the political cross-hairs to an extent not seen in years.

As Ed Perry, a retired biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and now the Pennsylvania outreach coordinator with the National Wildlife Federation, says, "This is the most amazing assault on clean air, water and wildlife that I have seen in my 40 years of working on conservation issues."

Consider the evidence: Last week the House passed the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act, HR 2018, an attempt to gut the EPA's power to set water standards for states -- and never mind that water from one state can flow downriver to degrade the next. Although this bill embodies extreme conservative ideology, Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, is a co-sponsor and voted for it.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11203/1162028-192.stm#ixzz1Spb535Uv

That's my Blue Dog, extreme conservative "Democratic" congressman, Jason Altmire, condemned in the 4th paragraph above.
Doing his best to decrease quality of the environment in what used to be Penn's Sylvan Woods, i.e, Pennsylvania.

[Divernan]

1. Pending bill: Place moratorium on adding any plants or animals to endangered species list.

Environment as pinata: America the beautiful? House bills have other ideas
Friday, July 22, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


More anti-environmental mischief is pending: A vote is expected early next week on the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Appropriations Act, HR 2584, which is heavily larded with noxious affronts to the idea of responsible stewardship of the environment.

As well as various assaults on the EPA, there's even a perverse provision that would place a moratorium on the listing of any more plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act (265 are now pending).

On Thursday the Obama administration indicated that it would veto HR 2584, but Mr. Altmire and other local legislators should cast their votes against it first.

Keep it America the beautiful.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11203/1162028-192.stm#ixzz1Spb535Uv