Environmental News: Media Center

WASHINGTON (March 10, 2011) – The House Energy and Power Subcommittee is poised to approve a bill today that takes another step down the path toward dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency, taking health and environmental protections down with it. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

The following is a statement from Franz Matzner, climate and air legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“By blocking EPA from enforcing safeguards to limit carbon dioxide pollution, this bill is the latest evidence of how just out of touch many members are with their own constituents.

“By rubber-stamping the pollution industry’s wish-list, a majority of the subcommittee is continuing the ideological assault on some of the country’s bedrock environmental and health protections. This legislation is the product of closed-door meetings with big polluters and the staffs of Rep. Upton and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who sponsored the bill in the Senate. No wonder it’s so one-sided.

“As many polls have shown, the American people want scientists, not politicians, to make decisions on health and environmental protections.

“No one who cares about our health, the health of the economy and the health of our planet can support this bill.”