Clean air.

The Bush Administration's "Clear Skies" initiative would substantially weaken public health and environmental protections under the Clean Air Act, while doing nothing about global warming. For over three decades, the Clean Air Act has worked to cut air emissions at the same time that the nation's economy has grown dramatically. "Clear Skies" will move the country backward by delaying deadlines for meeting the health standards in the Clean Air Act, relaxing pollution reduction requirements for power plants and other major pollution sources, and repealing protections for our national parks.

The Clean Air Act should be fully implemented and strengthened to reduce pollution, improve public health and stop global warming. The Senate is expected to take up legislation in the fall. Also see Sounding Off (p. 20) for a piece by the American Lung Association.

What You Can Do:

Contact your Senators and urge them to oppose attempts to weaken or delay implementation of the Clean Air Act. Tell them you oppose the Administration "Clear Skies" proposal.

GLOBAL WARMING

Action is needed to curb global warming. The 1990s was the hottest decade in the last 1000 years. In recent years, the U.S. has seen both severe drought and deadly flooding. In the future, global warming could result in declining lake levels in the Great Lakes region, more frequent and intense droughts in parts of the Great Plains, and more numerous storm surges in the Northeast.

The U.S., with only 4 percent of the world's population, is responsible for 22 percent of the world's heat-trapping emissions. The U.S. has a responsibility to cut our greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, ozone and nitrous oxide) production and provide world leadership on this important environmental concern. A delay in reducing greenhouse gas, especially carbon dioxide, will require deeper, costlier emissions cuts in the future and result in more damage to the environment and human health.

The current version of the energy bill allows for an increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gas. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) have proposed a bipartisan amendment to the Energy Policy Act that calls for a decrease in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to year 2000 levels by 2010 and year 1990 levels by 2016. This amendment provides an important first step in the effort to curtail global warming.

What You Can Do:

Contact your Senators today and urge them to support the McCain-Lieberman greenhouse gas amendment to curb global warning.