NRDC Urges Obama to Protect Public Health and Defend EPA

On the first morning of his summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, President Obama is being greeted by a playful, two-page ad in the local Gazette. Behind our good-natured ad, though, is a very serious issue.

We are urging the president to help safeguard the well-being of every man, woman and child by rejecting attempts by Big Polluters and their allies in Congress to thwart the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to reduce pollution and protect public health under the Clean Air Act. The brazen attempts to take America back to the dirty old days, if successful, also would hamper our ability to continue making progress in combating climate change. Here's the image of our ad:

The text directly under the image reads: ``Help us stop the attacks on the Clean Air Act.''

A bit of background: Over the past four decades, the Clean Air Act has earned a well-deserved reputation as one of America’s most effective tools in reducing dangerous pollutions that harm human health and poison our environment.

Now the law is coming under fire, largely from the same minority in Congress that blocked the Senate this summer from taking up comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

The Senate’s failure to act has made it all the more critical for EPA to begin curbing carbon pollution that fuels global warming. That’s why Big Polluters and their lobbyists are joining climate-change deniers in going after the agency.

If attempts succeed in blocking or delaying EPA from using the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon pollution, the impacts will be far-reaching and may be catastrophic. For every day that we stall, it becomes that much harder, and more expensive, to stop the increase in dangerous carbon pollution in our atmosphere.

We are urging the president to join the efforts of lawmakers and public health officials now working to repel the attacks on EPA.