Republican War on Clean Air and Water

I keep hearing republicans get upset when you point out they really want “dirty air and water”, they say that’s a nice liberal talking point. It’s not a talking point, it’s fact and their voting record proves it. Since 2011 congressional republicans have voted over 300 times on bills that favor corporations while doing harm to the environment including

130 Votes weakening the EPA

54 Votes weakening the Dept. of Energy

125 Votes lower pollution standards

55 votes to repeal clean energy

45 votes to promote more drilling esp. offshore

　

Clean Air act

This was passed in the 1970’s and signed into law by Richard Nixon, it has reduced pollution by over 50% while helping keep many pollution related illnesses under control. This congress has waged a war on this act trying to gut it, even trying to repeal the Health Based Standards meaning that corporations would now be allowed to pollute and knowing make people sick if it was best for business. That’s right they would now do a “Cost Benefits Analysis” to decide if it was in the best interest of corporations to give people cancer.

They also voted to repeal the regulation of mercury release and block the regulation on emissions from incinerator and power plants and finally to stop regulations on the release of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen - these ALONE prove they want dirtier air and water if it means more profits for corporations.

Independent studies have shown these attacks on the EPA will lead to

34,000 deaths

15,000 heart attacks

400,000 cases of asthma

280 Billion a year in added healthcare costs.

　

Clean Water Act

Passed in 1972 the goal of this act was to improve the abysmal water quality in many streams and rivers so that rivers like the one in Ohio would no longer be so polluted that they would catch fire. This act has reduced pollution by over 70%.

Despite all these benefit’s the GOP voted to strip the EPA of authority to set water quality standards or enforce the standards already set on discharge limits. They blocked funding that allows the EPA to protect swamps and run off water and even voted to repeal the restrictions on dumping pesticides into rivers and lakes.

To say they don’t want dirty water and air is a bold face lie and their voting record proves they do. They care more about corporate profits then their own children’s health but then again the pollution doesn’t really effect them as you never see oil rigs or drilling on their multi acre estate and they can drink bottled water and bill it to taxpayers as an expense. When they could not get away with stripping environmental protections away they did the next best thing and voted to cut EPA funding by over 5 billion dollars or over 40% of their budget. These are just a small portion of the over 300 anti-environment laws republicans have tried to pass so next time anyone like Sean Hannity or any republican tells you that they care about the environment just tell them to “prove it” because you can prove your argument since we know how republicans voted.
To me when you do a cost benefits analysis of profits over health - Health wins every time but sadly to republicans profits always win.