Lucas,
"That was a whole lotta fear-mongering."
That's what Public Citizen's Energy Program director, Tyson Slocum, said on Fox News last week.
He was responding to the old right-wing argument against environmental safeguards — they hurt the economy, kill jobs and raise the price of electricity — delivered by a Heritage Foundation research fellow.
The exchange got a little heated. Watch the full debate here.
Polluters' doomsday predictions have never come to pass.
Their latest hysteria is around a new rule intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.
The U.S. Supreme Court has mandated that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) use the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon emissions from our atmosphere. Getting the rule applied to new power plants is the first step.
Watch Tyson Slocum defend the EPA's new rule, and read more about challenges to reducing carbon emissions.
While this rule is new, polluters have a long history of attacking the Clean Air Act.
Their gloomy predictions that Clean Air Act rules will collapse the economy never materialize.
Instead, the Clean Air Act prevents tens of thousands of premature deaths each year. Along with lives saved, the Clean Air Act has reduced asthma attacks, heart disease and numerous other health problems.
In the weeks ahead, we will be asking you to support our public comments on this rule.
Until then, we hope you can take a few minutes to learn more about the new EPA rule and the challenges to implementing safeguards that protect us from harmful climate-altering pollutants.
Thank you for all you do.
Sincerely,
Allison Fisher
Public Citizen's Climate and Energy Program