Clean Air Advocates Decry House Passage of TRAIN Act
Contact Information
Theresa Keaveny, Montana Conservation Voters – 406-861-1557; Anne Hedges, Montana Environmental Information Center – 406-461-9546; Bob Clark, Sierra Club, 406-529-6706
Representative Dennis Rehberg Votes for TRAIN Act, and Against Healthy Air
(Helena) – Montana clean air advocates, including Montana Conservation Voters, Montana Environmental Information Center and the Sierra Club today denounced Montana Representative Dennis Rehberg and Congressional Republicans for their continued misguided attacks on the Clean Air Act, with the House passage of the TRAIN Act (H.R. 2401). This legislation includes provisions that block the pollution regulations Montana residents depend on to keep our air free from excessive levels of toxins, like mercury and ozone.
The groups released the following statement in response to the U.S. House of Representatives passage of the TRAIN Act, H.R. 2401:
We are appalled by the continued attacks on our clean air by the United States Congress and our own Congressman Dennis Rehberg. For too long, these politicians have put the interests of their political donors and party ahead of what’s important to their constituents. Clean air safeguards save thousands of lives each year and billions of dollars in health-related costs. The TRAIN Act would lead to more than 25,000 deaths at the hands of toxic pollutants; it is reprehensible that Dennis Rehberg would vote for such a dangerous bill.
Rehberg voted on Friday for the TRAIN Act, which passed the House and now heads to the U.S. Senate. The Act would spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a modern day witch hunt looking to gut industrial regulations that, among other things, protect the air we breathe and the health of our children.
The TRAIN Act would also effectively repeal the proposed Mercury and Air Toxins Standards, which limit the amount of mercury and other dangerous toxins power plants can emit into the air, as well as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which curbs dangerous toxin emissions that cross state lines. Blocking these provisions would result in an additional 25,000 deaths due to toxic air pollution; more than 11,000 more heart attacks; 120,000 asthma attacks; and 12,000 hospital visits.
“These provisions save lives and money,” said Theresa Keaveny of Montana Conservation Voters, “and at a time when we need jobs, they would put thousands of Americans to work cleaning up the smoke stacks that pollute our air - a win for everybody.”
Anne Hedges, of the Montana Environmental Information Center, said, “it’s unconscionable in this day and age not to protect our children from toxic air pollution, especially when we already have the cost-effective technology to do so.”
This is the latest in a series of attacks from Republicans on the Clean Air Act.
Recently, advocates including the League of Women Voters, Montana Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and others, kicked off the Clean Air Promise campaign and have already gathered hundreds of signed postcards supporting the Promise. They also recently submitted over 1,000 individual comment postcards to the EPA in support of the proposed Mercury and Air Toxins Standards for Power Plants rule, which would cut mercury emissions from power plants nationwide by 91 percent and reduce arsenic and acid gasses by 91 percent. It is estimated that doing this would prevent over 12,000 trips to the hospital and save up to 17,000 lives each year once fully implemented.
###
