Public Employee Press

2012 Election
Republican candidates back pollution profiteers

The Inuit people of Canada's Arctic region say their weather is "uggianaqtuq" lately - behaving in unexpected ways.

But when it comes to our urgent need to slow global climate change and find sustainable ways to live on the earth without drinking and breathing toxic chemicals, the Republicans are acting in expected ways: They oppose every measure that supports clean air, clean water and clean energy.

As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote, "Republicans are telling us gasoline would be cheap and jobs plentiful if only we would stop protecting the environment and let energy companies do whatever they want."

The Obama administration has crafted measures to clean up our air by regulating emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and other toxic substances from electric power plants, which are among the biggest air polluters. But lobbyists for the polluters and their Republican friends in Congress are trying to prevent emission controls, protesting that it will cost energy companies money to comply.

About 7 million children, one in 10, suffer from asthma. Medical researchers tell us that cutting toxic emissions would reduce this epidemic, but that doesn't deter these pollution profiteers.

In its 40 years, the Clean Water Act has had tremendous success in cleaning up the nation's polluted waterways, but Republicans in Congress are again putting the greed of polluting businesses ahead of the needs of the public. Their dishonestly named "Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act," for example, would demolish the Clean Water Act.

The connection between corporate campaign contributions to Republicans and their attacks on environmental laws is evident as the same kind of bills Republicans are pushing to gut workers' safety and health regulations are being introduced to cripple enforcement of our environmental laws.

Efforts to protect our air and water were once bipartisan. Republican President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and signed the Clean Air Act into law. George H.W. Bush reauthorized it, and Gerald Ford signed the Safe Drinking Water Act.

But the current Republican candidates want to block any and all environmental and public health regulations to enrich their business supporters.

—Jane LaTour