Attack on Clean Air Act

Senate vote Tuesday: Stop Rand Paul's attack on the Clean Air Act.

On Tuesday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is expected to force a vote in the Senate to prevent the EPA from implementing its life-saving Cross State Air Pollution rule.

Because the Tea Party darling Sen. Paul is using an obscure procedural tactic called the Congressional Review Act, he only needs 51 votes to pass the law to handcuff the EPA from enforcing the Clean Air Act.¹

Support in the Senate for the Clean Air Act is extremely tenuous. Please make sure your Senators know you expect them to protect your health and reject the Tea Party's attack on clean air.

Tell your senators: Reject the attack on the Clean Air Act. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

The Congressional Review Act — created by none other than Newt Gingrich — allows simple majority votes in congress to overturn recent agency rules.

The president can veto the congressional attack on his rules, and ordinarily we would expect him to. But given President Obama's massive, politically motivated cave on the EPA's ozone rule in September, we can't be confident that he would veto.²

We need 50 senators to vote to protect clean air. That's possible, but could be extremely difficult. As we saw this April — when 17 Democrats joined 47 Republicans to vote for rules to weaken, block or delay the Clean Air Act³ — there is not majority support for clean air in the Senate.

Smog and particulate matter pollution from power plants, creates ozone in the air that causes premature death, lung disease and aggravates asthma.

The Cross State Air Pollution rule is a needed update to a 2005 Bush-Administration rule that federal courts found too weak. The rule would reduce air pollution from 27 states that contribute to air pollution and dangerous ozone levels in other states. In so doing, EPA estimates that this rule will, by 2014, save tens of thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of cases of aggravated asthma, every year.⁴

It's astonishing that that doesn't mean much to Rand Paul, who despite some controversy⁵, claims to be a doctor. Help make sure your Senator knows it means something to you.

Tell your senators: Reject this attack on the Clean Air Act. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Thank you for fighting for clean air.

Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. "Rand Paul Makes His Move on Air Rule," Politico, September 15, 2011
2. "Obama's Ozone Standards Retreat Angers Environmental Groups, Ignores Science," Huffington Post, September 2, 2011
3. "Seventeen Dirty Democrats Join Senate GOP Climate Zombies," Think Progress, April 6, 2011
4. "Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR)," Environmental Protection Agency
5. "Rand Paul's Doctor Credentials Questioned for Lacking Top Board's Certification," Associated Press, June 14, 2011