The GOP's Hidden Debt-Deal Agenda: Gut the EPA

[wtmusic]

(cross-post from GD - thanks FarLeftFist :thumbsup:)

"It was lost in the endless drama of the debt-ceiling negotiations, but last week the Republicans in charge of the House of Representatives launched an unprecedented attack on the country's environmental protections. GOP representatives added rider after rider to the 2012 spending bill for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, tacking on amendments that would essentially prevent those agencies - charged with protecting America's air, water and wildlife - from doing their jobs.

Last week's rider fest wasn't unusual for the 112th U.S. Congress. Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey - two senior Democrats with solid green credentials - recently charted all the votes taken so far this year and calculated that the Republican-led House has voted to "stop," "block" or "undermine" efforts to protect the environment 110 times since January. As Natural Resources Defense Council president Frances Beinecke wrote recently, this body of lawmakers stands an excellent chance of becoming "the most anti-environment House of Representatives" in U.S. history. (Read about the battle brewing over the EPA's emissions regulations.)

To which you might react: Well, duh. In recent years the Republican Party has defined itself as staunchly anti-EPA and generally anti–environmental protection. Whether that means opposing legislation to curb climate change or new rules to promote energy-efficient lightbulbs, if it can be considered green, then the majority of the GOP is almost always against it. That antigreen ideology has only been stiffened by the rise of the Tea Party, and Republican presidential candidates on the campaign trail are fighting to see who can come across as more hostile to environmental regulations. "

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=115

Why castrating the EPA is a big deal. Bigger than Fukushima, bigger than Chernobyl.

"EPA officials estimate that reductions of toxic pollution required by pending federal standards would save as many as 17,000 lives a year by 2015, prevent up to 120,000 cases of childhood asthma, more than 12,000 emergency room and hospital visits, and 850,000 lost workdays annually. The federal standards are expected to be finalized in November.

'Coal pollution is killing Americans,' said Dr. Lynn Ringenberg of Physicians for Social Responsibility. 'As a pediatrician for over 30 years, I urge us absolutely to support the EPA's efforts to reduce the health threat from coal.'"

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/25/2329923/study-ranks-air-pollution-from.html#ixzz1TshbcPII