Life-saving air quality protections are under threat by polluter allies in Congress
23,957
Supporters spoke up in this action
Delivery to U.S. Congress
Action ended on July 15, 2024
What Happens Next
Thank you to all who took action! We’re grateful for your support.
What Was At Stake
Everyone deserves the right to breathe clean air.
For over 50 years, the Clean Air Act has improved the lives of millions of people across the country by regulating air pollution, allowing us to breathe easier and live healthier. However, polluting industries have fought progress every step of the way, making pollution a continued public health threat for many.
In recent months, the Biden administration has made big strides in public health and environmental protection through executive agency rulemakings including setting standards that protect us from deadly air pollutants. These finalized standards would reduce toxic emissions across industries from manufacturing, to agriculture and transportation, resulting in saved lives and clearer skies.
Throughout the rulemaking process, polluting industries worked to weaken these rules, and now with the standards finalized, polluters have gone to court to challenge our life-saving air quality protections. Not only that, but polluters have also enlisted allies in Congress to use an extreme tool to weaken our clean air and we need your help to stop them.
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Your Actions Matter
Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.
You level the playing field.
Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.
They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.
Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.
Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.
Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.
Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)
Your action is with us in court.
If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.
Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.
We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.
Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.
Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.
It’s the law.
Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.
Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.
Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.
Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”
When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.
What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.