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Smog pollution triggers more than 370,000
asthma attacks each year in Pennsylvania.
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Despite protests from citizens groups, public health advocates, and the environmental community, the Pennsylvania state Senate voted against adopting new clean air standards for pollution from cars and trucks on February 15.
The Senate voted 27-20 in favor of Senate Bill 1025, an anti-clean car proposal. This bill would block state regulators from implementing standards that would cut smog-forming pollution from cars and light trucks by 10 percent, benzene emissions—a known carcinogen— by 15 percent, and global warming pollution by nearly 25 percent beyond a weaker federal program. Ten other states—including New York and New Jersey—have already adopted the stronger standards.
“Today is a sad day for Pennsylvania’s environment and public health,” said PennEnvironment energy and clean air advocate Nathan Willcox. “With smog triggering more than 370,000 asthma attacks in the Commonwealth each year, it is shocking that some politicians in Harrisburg would vote to weaken clean air regulations.”
Many environmental and public health advocates see this as the most comprehensive attack on the state’s clean air rules in years, at a time when nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania’s counties do not comply with health-based standards for smog pollution under the federal Clean Air Act.
During the summer months, smog pollution triggers “code red” pollution days across
the state, alerting the public that the air is unsafe to breathe for those who suffer from asthma and other respiratory ailments. Smog is linked to a host of respiratory problems beyond asthma, including increased congestion, pulmonary inflammation and other problems during outdoor exercise.
PennEnvironment’s Willcox was asked to testify before the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in December 2005 on the anti-clean car legislation, and spoke in strong opposition to SB 1025. At the same time, PennEnvironment also met with many senators and staff prior to the vote, generated editorial opposition to the legislation in newspapers across Pennsylvania, and alerted PennEnvironment members about the pending vote. This triggered hundreds of e-mails from PennEnvironment members to their senators, helping to convince some of the 20 senators who opposed the bill to stand up to this anti-environmental effort. PennEnvironment was also joined by many public health organizations and citizens’ groups in opposing the anti-clean car bill, including the American Lung Association of Pennsylvania, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Women’s Health & Environmental Network, Pennsylvania State Nurses Association and the Pennsylvania Parent Teachers Association (PTA).
PennEnvironment thanked the 20 senators who stood up for stronger clean air standards by voting against SB 1025 in February, including the 8 Republican senators (Senators Conti, Erickson, Greenleaf, Pileggi, Rafferty, Tomlinson, Waugh and Wonderling) who stood strong against their party’s leadership and with their constituents in opposing the bill. Unfortunately, seven Democratic senators sided with Republican leadership in supporting SB 1025, ensuring its passage through the state Senate.
But while the anti-clean car bill waited for consideration in the state House, DEP moved ahead with its rule-making process for implementing the stronger standards. To show broad support for cleaner air, PennEnvironment turned out citizens to three DEP public hearings held in March in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and the Philadelphia area on this issue. PennEnvironment also generated thousands of public comments into DEP in support of the stronger standards.
Throughout the summer, PennEnvironment will continue working to educate and mobilize the public in support of the stronger standards, ensuring that DEP continues to move forward with its rule-making process and that state legislators are not successful in their attempt to derail the Clean Vehicles Program. |
