2010.04.06 Press Release
Sierra Club Asks Congressman Gonzalez, Support Clean Air Act
Contact: Eva Hernandez, 512-299-1550 or Donna Hoffman, 512-299-5776
Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and Energía Mia on behalf of individual Texans and community groups across the state joined together today to ask Congressman Charlie Gonzalez to oppose the seven ‘Dirty Air Act’ legislative proposals that have been introduced by both Republicans and Democrats in the House seeking to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing limits on global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act.
“The Clean Air Act is a cornerstone of our national environmental policy, and an essential complement of climate and energy legislation. By cracking down on big polluters with the Clean Air Act’s protections, we have begun to create millions of new jobs to jumpstart our economy. We could see 100,000 new clean energy jobs in Texas by 2020,” said Eva Hernandez with Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.
The environmental organizations point out that the ‘Dirty Air Act’ proposals ignore a more than decade long public process, which has included hundreds of thousands of public comments, public hearings, and exhaustive scientific and economic reviews in support of the Clean Air Act and the EPA.
“The Supreme Court ordered that the Environmental Protection Agency take action to regulate Global Warming gases, and they did not do so lightly,” said Andy Wilson with Public Citizen. “These attacks on the Clean Air Act are a direct affront to the science of global warming. Congress can regulate greenhouse gases or the only viable alternative is using the Clean Air Act which has a stellar record of cleaning up the air and protecting Texas citizen’s health.”
Congress must enact the kind of comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that the country needs to build a clean energy economy, create jobs, and protect the environment. Congress should continue to move forward with EPA to tackle the critical challenge of climate change.
“Here at home, thousands of American businesses are waiting for Congress to set a clean energy and climate policy that will unlock billions of dollars in job-creating clean energy investments, but the current efforts to undermine the Clean Air Act would derail this long-overdue progress,” said Peggy Day with the Alamo group of Sierra Club. “We want Congressman Gonzalez to support the Clean Air Act.”
The groups visited with Representative Gonzalez at his District Office in San Antonio this morning.
# # # Explore, Enjoy, Protect
Contact: Eva Hernandez, 512-299-1550 or Donna Hoffman, 512-299-5776