Friends,
Wow! In the past week, we've received over 33,000 signatures on our petition to Obama urging him to stand up against attacks on our health.
We're a third of the way to hitting our goal of 100,000 signatures in the next couple weeks -- and you haven't seen anything yet.
This has been a crazy whiplash week! A new survey was just released that shows more than three out of four Americans--including a clear majority of Republicans--oppose efforts in Congress to block Clean Air Act updates for carbon, smog and other pollution.1 Meanwhile, Democrats from coal states joined the Republican pile on as they all try to outdo each other to eviscerate the EPA and our health safeguards.2
Now it is more important than ever to add 100,000 real names to the vast public support for health and deliver that message loud and clear in D.C.
Please forward the message below or click our handy share buttons and ask your friends and family to take action. Together we can stop the polluters from winning!
The President is pushing a bold plan that stresses American innovation to create clean energy jobs and put Americans back to work. We're excited about the President's forward vision -- but
Republican leaders and Democrats in coal states are already looking to roll back environmental protections that will hurt our economy and make our families sick.
I wish I were exaggerating, but just last week
Newt Gingrich announced that the EPA should be abolished 1 and this week Democrats in the Senate are working to block the EPA's authority on regulating life-threatening levels of carbon for the next two years.
2 Our representatives in D.C. are scrambling to outdo each other in scrapping basic health safeguards.
Sign our petition and demand Obama stand up for our health against attacks!
The Sierra Club is launching a
massive grassroots blizzard with powerful activities all across the country aimed at reminding the new Congress and Obama Administration that they need to keep standing up for the health and protection of our families, not Big Oil and Coal polluters.
Our first step is to to hand-deliver 100,000 signatures to the White House to stress that
the nation's physical and economic well-being depends on passing and enforcing strong environmental standards to protect our health and our economy. Together, we can turn back the tide!
Please add your name to the petition to protect our health from pollution!
Big Coal and Big Oil are working with their allies in Congress to eviscerate our health safeguards -- this is a real and urgent threat to each and every one of us. As EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has pointed out,
making polluters clean up their act during the past 40 years not only saved millions of American lives, but also has added trillions of dollars to our economy.3
Yet Rep. Carter (R-TX) has already gotten the demolition ball rolling by attempting to use an obscure procedure called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to shutdown the EPA's finalized standards to control extremely toxic air emissions from cement plants.
This one obscure rule alone is a big deal for the health of everyone you care about. Cement plants are the third largest emitter of dangerous, mercury pollution. The new EPA standards will prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths a year along with 130,000 days of work missed due to pollution related health problems.
4 Imagine cutting more rules like this.
It's a stark choice. We know Carter and his friends have decided to stand with corporate greed. Let's make sure that Obama stands with us.
Add your name to the petition to keep Obama's attention on defending the environmental safeguards that protect our families.
Thanks for all that you do to protect the environment.
Sarah Hodgdon
Sierra Club Conservation Director
[3] "Administrator Jackson Remarks at Harvard," EPA: December 23, 2010.
[4] "Portland Cement: Factsheet," Earthjustice Factsheet: 2010.
