Thanking House Leaders Who Stood For Clean Air
This week has been a welcome reprieve from the madness in the House of Representatives last week. Among the many environmental amendments passed in the House budget plan is one that blocks regulations of mercury and other air pollution emanating from cement plants. Despite the calm after the storm, we’ve got continued movement from…
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This week has been a welcome reprieve from the madness in the House of Representatives last week. Among the many environmental amendments passed in the House budget plan is one that blocks regulations of mercury and other air pollution emanating from cement plants. Despite the calm after the storm, we’ve got continued movement from folks on the ground to push against these ludicrous proposals.
Allie Sheffield of Topsail, North Carolina (among her many efforts has been a trip to Washington, DC recently to lobby her state congressional representatives) had another letter placed in a North Carolina newspaper. In her letter, she thanks Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) for not voting on an amendment that would undo important cement kiln rules. He also voted against the entire House budget (one of 189 congressmen to do so).
Her letter in its entirety:
Many thanks to Rep. Mike McIntyre for protecting local residents by voting on February 18 against legislation in the House of Representatives that would kill EPA’s 2010 cement kiln regulations. The cement kiln regulations would require Titan Cement and other cement plants in the United States to install “scrubbers” that would capture more than 90% of toxic emissions before the emissions are released into the air.
Opponents and supporters of Titan should agree on this: the less poisonous emissions Titan emits if it is ultimately built, the better.
Titan’s 400′ smokestack would carry its emissions far beyond Castle Hayne, to nearly every corner of New Hanover County and to eastern Pender County, Residents will be blanketed by thousands of tons of potentially deadly toxic emissions each year without the cement kiln regulations. All of us owe Rep. McIntyre a huge vote of thanks for supporting us on this issue.
Unfortunately, the bill to kill the cement kiln regulations passed the House despite Rep. McIntyre’s opposition, and the issue has moved to the Senate. We must quickly convince Senators Burr and Hagan to join Rep. McIntyre in protecting the health of local residents by supporting the cement kiln regulations and opposing any effort to kill them. The Senate is expected to take up this issue next week.
Ask your Senators to oppose any effort to defund or kill EPA’s cement kiln regulations.
Allie Sheffield
Topsail Island
Raviya was a press secretary at Earthjustice in the Washington, D.C. office from 2008 to 2014, working on issues including federal rulemakings, energy efficiency laws and coal ash pollution.
Earthjustice’s Washington, D.C., office works at the federal level to prevent air and water pollution, combat climate change, and protect natural areas. We also work with communities in the Mid-Atlantic region and elsewhere to address severe local environmental health problems, including exposures to dangerous air contaminants in toxic hot spots, sewage backups and overflows, chemical disasters, and contamination of drinking water. The D.C. office has been in operation since 1978.