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How Bush Administration Policies Harm Pennsylvania Communities Pennsylvania is rich and abundant with forests, farmland, waters, and wildlife. Regardless of the season or region, we Pennsylvanians enjoy a special relationship with our natural inheritance. And we know that protecting our natural resources and beauty makes the Keystone State's economy stronger and our families healthier. From the Poconos to the Three Rivers, the Allegheny National Forest to the Amish farming communities, the natural heritage of Penn's Woods has always been of special importance to our residents and civic leaders. But our state's treasured environment has been put at risk. Bush administration policies that weaken and ignore federal environmental safeguards are already harming our communities, and threaten to make things worse. Marchers at the October "Walk for the Earth Rally" in Philadelphia send a message to President Bush: There's a better way to protect our air and water. From left to right are Patrick O'Malley, Jack Rudnick, Amanda Amoros, and Shirley Moyer. Photo by Samina Jain. The Bush administration is allowing the electric power companies, the chemical corporations, coal companies, and other industries to rewrite and weaken the laws and regulations that protect the health and safety of Pennsylvania families and communities. The administration is allowing corporations to benefit at our expense. It is pursuing plans to allow electric power plants to put more mercury into our air than is allowed by current law, shift the cost of cleaning up Pennsylvania's 93 Superfund toxic sites from polluters to taxpayers, and cut the funds needed to enforce clean air and water laws and keep raw sewage out of our rivers. And Bush administration plans to put less money into public transportation threaten Philadelphia's superb transit system. The administration's undermining of our nation's most basic environmental protections leaves the people of Pennsylvania exposed and vulnerable to increased amounts of asthma-triggering smog, growth-retarding mercury and lead, cancer-causing dioxin, and other contaminants. Permitting coal-fired power plants in the Ohio Valley and in our own state to continue to foul the air puts our citizens - especially our children and the elderly - at risk. This report documents the consequences of Bush administration action (and lack of action) on the health and safety of families in communities across Pennsylvania. This report also serves to remind us what we have learned over the last thirty years - that there is a better way, that we have the know-how and a successful track record cleaning up the pollution in our air and water and the poisons in our soil. But know-how's clearly not enough, when the administration is determined to let the corporations off the hook and de-fund the agencies responsible for enforcing environmental laws. Only public pressure on lawmakers will ensure that the last three decades of progress continue, keeping our communities safe and protecting our children's legacy of clean air, water, and still-wild lands. "The administration's undermining of environmental protections leaves the people of Pennsylvania exposed and vulnerable." Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use