I've been displaced from my home in E. Mt Airy of Philadelphia because my end row was next to a vacant lot with a lot of industrial history. The city decided to develop it & did so with no dust control or proper environmental procedure. I became extremely ill, especially when the chemical vapors and dust came up. I ended up in the ER with breathing difficulty and chemical exposure symptoms, but the politicians & developers didn't care & started attacking me. That all started in 2006. Now I am still ill, displaced & lost all normal life routine. I made this youtube Toxic Philadelphia to educate about this but much worse happened. No one will help me. No one. I get attacked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_CmV8iC_Ak

What happens to the air, water and environment today will have a lasting effect on todays generation and all future generations. We have been blessed with an abundant earth filled with treasures that can't be replaced. We cannot gamble with the infinite intricacies of our earth and the variety of its inhabitants, there is no guarantee of a second chance. It is imperative that we get it right today! afw

We need solid laws to regulate our natural resources. This starts with water - our lifeblood.

We cannot exempt certain special interests from our very rational laws regulating water pollution. The long-term ramifications of short term profits for these shell companies is unacceptable.

We must include the total cost of environmental exploitation into our public decision making.
Lew

We need clean air for our future children and grandchildren.

My hometown in Western Pa used to have bad air from the steel mills. The mills are gone, but now we have politicians that want to protect the polluters. The polluters only care about making profits. Some time ago, I read an online article showing the most polluted places on Earth. One picture from Russia made it look like it was night. The pollution was so bad. Mexico City is awful as the smog gets trapped between mountains and people have to go outside with masks over their faces. Another site that is battling air pollution is 350.org. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...Benjamin Franklin

I too grew up in the countryside and now I live in a small town by the Susquehanna river. I value my clean air greatly.

It should never be about us it should ALWAYS BE ABOUT OUR FURTURE GENERATIONS!

It seems that I've jumped from the frying pan into the fire. As a child in the 1940s and 1950s, I lived near a railroad yard with coal-fired locomotives, not far from coke ovens and, of course, every home had coal-fired furnaces. A horrible beginning to one easily subject to asthma, which I still suffer from. As an adult, I eventually settled in the South Hills of PIttsburgh, where polluted air is a given. Our government must, absolutely must, take steps to provide all of us with air that is as clean as possible, as soon as possible.

Air and water, there are no substitutes. If we can't keep them clean what kind of a species did God make?

ETH

We have over 30 Coal burning plants in our state. They are creating a lot of pollution. This needs to be corrected.
We have a lot of companies extracting natural gas from the Marcellus shale in our state. We have had leaks that have leaked dangerous chemicals into some of our lakes and streams
We need rules and or laws with proper oversight to prevent and correct these problems.
What we really need is a national energy policy that will invest in clean energy. We need to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry.

We are guaranteed the rights to LIFE, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. CLEAN AIR is required to sustain LIFE, even that of those who waste their breath denying this fact. Profiteers are a cancer upon this EARTH, destroying their their own life-support system with a mono-vision of denial.

Clean air may not be a right guaranteed by our constitution, but it is a God given right that no government, business or individual should be allowed to diminish or usurp.

All living beings need clean air and water. We need help getting and keeping what we need to survive.

Our air in the Pittsburgh area is the dirtiest or in the top 3 of the whole USA We live in a community adjacent to a Coke Facility When the wind blows a certain way our yards fill with this stench This has been going on for years
Allegheny Co does nothing to stop it

Clean, Fresh air for all of us should be a right, the polluting industries should be made to think about people and not profits.

I support you Kate,

Good luck in Washington. We need people like you to talk to our dicision makers about what is important. Clean air & water help sustain healthy communities and give us places to play. This is a quality of life issue, and the message needs to be directly relayed. Thank You.

Kate,
Thanks for speaking out on this.
Prana

Clean air and clean water are necessary to life. Thank you for representing us.

EVERY living being has the right to breath clean air and have clean water.

I live in the Pittsburgh area and have deep concerns when it comes to Marcellus shale gas "drilling", coal fired power plants and nuclear power plants.

I also wonder why so few people seem to be concerned with any of these topics.

We ALL live here and we ALL must step up, do our part.

Be aware, be concerned and get involved.

let her do her job

As someone who grew up in Pittsburgh, I grew up with "weak" lungs. When I got married, I moved away, and it wasn't until I had been back in Pittsburgh a few years that I was finally diagnosed with asthma. Now, there are nights when it is difficult for me to sing my daughter to sleep. And I have a son who is borderline asthmatic and has to take medicine for his allergies to keep him from becoming asthmatic. When I think that this is all avoidable, that it is all caused by the failed energy policies that we continue to accept, it makes me feel like crying. Thanks to everyone who steps up and takes action for clean air through an environmental group or some other method.

Please protect the air we breathe!

Living on the outskirts of Pgh, I too am concerned about our air, water, and land. What concerns me more is how so many people are oblivious to their wellness (health, beauty of nature, economy, and all) and their being part of the natural world (the all). They just don't make the connection. We must raise consciousness about who we are as humans within the all. And it doesn't matter whether one believes an outside devine god who made everything or that we are one expression of a 13.7 billion year unfolding story. How ever we can make that connection, we must do it.

i support clean air.

Fresh air!
"Someone has been hurt--give them some air!" "Take a deep breath and relax." "That lovely child is truly a breath of fresh air!"

The necessity to breathe, breathe fresh air, to breathe deeply is embedded in our everyday language. It's been there all along.

Now, however, air pollution is becoming more prevalent every day. We can't take our right to breathe fresh air for granted.

Fresh air now a "cause." We must protect it and fight for it.

Best of luck o you Kate, with our Pa business friendly (very, very friendly) government trying as hard as can be to do about anything to exploit our resources as fast as possible as little thought as possible is being given to clean air or water.

We share your concern, as parents of 5 year old twins in central PA. The quality of the food and water we take into our bodies directly affects the quality of our lives.

Good luck and thanks for fighting for all of us- it is greatly appreciated:-)

Thank you Kate for you work. I moved to Narvon, PA after I retired two years ago. I was a Federal Worker from DC and know all too well how the lobbyist wine and dine congress to get what they want for profit. We need persons of you stature to let Congress know that everyday citizens are not benefited in any way by some of the companies.

Thank you again.

Good luck.

Congratulations on the new baby and thanks for fighting for clean air!

Good luck, Kate! Thanks for defending the right to breathe.