For those who care about the air we breathe, President Obama’s plan to cut carbon emissions was welcome relief. The harmful effects of carbon dioxide on our health and our pocket books are indisputable.
Not surprisingly, the plan, which was introduced in August 2015, was lauded by top U.S. businesses and parents across the country. You can see video testimonials by mom supporters at the Clean Air Moms website.
So…this commonsense plan sailed to implementation, right?
Wrong.
State legislators in the pockets of polluting power plants filed a lawsuit against the plan and received a stay by a divided 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court.
Think about it: big polluters spent millions of dollars corralling the votes of state legislators and the chance to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, in the end, it came down to just a single person’s vote.
Now, with a Supreme Court vacancy hanging in the balance, the next president of the United States will determine whether we win those close battles, or narrowly lose them.
Please join me in signing the Clean Air Moms pledge to vote – and get out on November 8! Tell your family, friends and neighbors to do the same.
There is so much at stake this election – the very air we breathe! The next U.S. president will fill a Supreme Court vacancy that could mean the difference between clean air regulations that protect us, or those that serve only the industry.
There are key congressional, state and local races across the country, in which the candidates could not be any more different on this issue. There are candidates who favor abolishing all clean air regulations along with its regulatory body the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Then there are candidates who have built their careers defending our fundamental right to breathe clean air. It is imperative that we educate ourselves and others on this issue.
At the top of the ticket, there are two formidable candidates whose stances are opposite on environmental health. Hillary Clinton’s energy plan is filed under the “Climate change” section of her website and proposes to “generate enough renewable energy to power every home in America, with half a billion solar panels installed by the end of Hillary’s first term.” Now head on over to the “Energy” section of Donald J. Trump’s website. He, too, promises to “create millions of new jobs, and protect clean air and clean water.” However, all of his proposals involve the consumption of fossil fuels, such as, “Unleash America’s $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, plus hundreds of years in clean coal reserves.” (Please Mr. Trump, don’t call it “clean coal” as there is no such thing no matter how much your coal-industry donors insist!)
Clinton supports Obama’s plan to cut carbon emissions from coal-powered plants, while Trump has repeatedly called for eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency entrusted with enforcing our clean air and water rules.
As much attention as the presidential race gets, let’s not forget the importance of races lower down the ballot. Senators Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), Joe Heck (Nevada), and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) are all in hotly contested Senate races. They share another commonality: they all made the League of Conservation Voters’ “Dirty Dozen” list for collecting millions of dollars in campaign contributions from big polluters and consistently voting against clean air and water regulations. (Trump, by the way, tops the list!)
All three of these Senators vehemently oppose clean power plant rules. Tell your family and friends!
In addition to individual candidates, let’s not forget that who runs the Senate matters. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example, has used his power in the Senate to block and roll back clean air legislation. He launched his 2014 reelection campaign by penning an op-ed titled, “States should reject Obama mandate for clean-power regulations.” He can do a lot more damage to our air as majority leader, than he would as minority leader.
And let’s not forget state and local races. It was 24 states who challenged the clean power plant rules. Among them? Indiana, under the leadership of Governor Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate for vice president. In fact, Indiana is home to the country’s top polluting coal-fired power plants, pumping “out millions of pounds of toxic air pollution. They throw off greenhouse gases on par with Hong Kong or Sweden,” according to an article in USA Today. (Young Kavon Cooper’s family was featured in this heartbreaking article.)
Rather than protect the health of his fellow hoosiers, Governor Pence has consistently chosen to take hundreds of thousands of dollars in industry campaign contributions and sue the EPA over clean power plant rules. While he may no longer be running for governor, this now-open seat can have a huge effect on the ultimate state of clean air in the Hoosier State.
Over in North Carolina, Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest warned his audience at an agricultural forum that “environmental terrorism is coming after you, trying to shut down your businesses while you’re trying to work harder and harder.” Who are these terrorists you may ask? Is it the polluters? Unfortunately not.
As Clean Air Moms Action national campaign manager Veronica Butcher noted, these “terrorists” eerily sound like us…concerned parents!
“When kids miss school to get treated for asthma, their parents miss work and the family's medical bills balloon. Almost a third of children in North Carolina visited an emergency department or urgent care center in the past year alone because of asthma,” Butcher wrote for the The News & Observer. “Asthma and a host of chronic lung diseases affect people of all political beliefs. These people are not terrorists but they do live with the terror of falling ill and the crippling fear of going outside when air quality is bad.”
Of course, these aren’t issues in just Indiana or North Carolina. Battles like these are being waged all across America. For those of us who want to make sure that our children and future generations have the clean air they need to live and thrive, we must not stay home on November 8.
Remember: when we all vote at the same time for a shared cause, we are more powerful than any industry lobbyist. Please sign the Clean Air Moms pledge to vote today and take on these big polluters!
I am a wife, mother of two, writer and activist who lives in Berkeley, California. This post was produced with support from Clean Air Moms Action. All opinions are, of course, my own.