Will Congress protect our waterways?
As the U.S. House and Senate prepared this spring for hearings on legislation to strengthen clean water protections for smaller streams and wetlands, Wisconsin Environment enlisted 175 representatives and 21 senators to co-sponsor the Clean Water Restoration Act, which would reinstate protections for all waters.
Over the past five years, the Bush administration’s “No Protection” policy, along with decisions in favor of polluters made by the U.S. Supreme Court, has chipped away at protections for smaller streams and wetlands by narrowly defining the Clean Water Act. The Bush administration’s policy puts 59 percent of the stream miles in the continental United States at risk of increased pollution.
During our citizen lobby day in March, we worked to cultivate the leadership of the Great Lakes states’ congressional delegation, including co-sponsoring Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and Rahm Emanuel (Ill.).
EPA urged to strengthen smog standards
Wisconsin Environment pressed for stronger smog standards that would force more polluters to clean up. On Jan. 3, Margie Alt, executive director of our national federation, Environment America, joined several of our allies in urging Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson to strengthen the nation’s smog standards.
But Johnson announced in March that the agency would adopt a new smog rule that is less protective of public health than the one recommended by EPA’s own scientific advisers. In addition, under the guise of “modernizing” the Clean Air Act, Johnson called for fundamental changes to the law, including requiring implementation costs to be considered in setting air quality standards. Half of all Americans live in places where air pollution threatens public health. The EPA’s smog standards force polluters that exceed air pollution limits to clean up, but several studies show that smog standards are too low to protect public health.
