The Macon Telegraph
Written by Susan Berryman Rodriguez
LTE – “Right to healthy air”
August 15, 2015
View the original here.
Last week President Obama made history when he announced carbon pollution standards for power plants. The Clean Power Plan is a landmark action to protect public health, reduce energy bills and bring clean power to communities in Georgia. The CPP nationally is expected to prevent up to 3,600 premature deaths, 90,000 asthma attacks and 300,000 days of missed work and school.
Cleaning up carbon pollution benefits public health immediately, as it will cut emissions of other dangerous pollutants that lead to ozone and particulate matter. Polluted air unfairly harms some more than others: children, older adults, kids and adults with asthma, people with COPD, heart disease, those who work or exercise outside and even low-income communities. Dirty air threatens the health of someone in nearly every American family.
Critics of the CPP mistakenly argue that the federal government is overreaching. But in reality, the CPP offers a flexible framework that allows Georgia to develop a tailored plan. With the retirement of some of the most egregious coal-fired power plants and with one of the fastest growing solar markets in the country, Georgia is heading in the right direction. But we have more work to do.
To maximize health benefits, Georgia should take steps now to protect the health of our residents. All of us — everyone in every family — has a right to healthy air.
— Susan Berryman-Rodriguez
Project Director, Mothers & Others for Clean Air: American Lung Association in Georgia
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