Colegas, Next week I’ll be in Washington D.C. meeting with members of Congress, the EPA, and the White House about the Clean Power Plan along with nine other advocates representing five states (see Call2Action below that NEEDS YOU). We’ll be there to amplify the voice of our communities feeling the damaging impacts of carbon pollution and dirty air and demanding from congressional leadership to not put the interests of dirty energy and polluters above the integrity of our children’s and mother earth’s future. In June 2014 the Environmental Protection Agency announced the first ever standards to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants, our nation’s largest source of climate changing emissions. The Clean Power Plan establishes pollution targets for each state. Once implemented, the Plan will reduce carbon pollution by 30% by 2030.
BUT this historic Plan is under threat by members of congress that want to stop EPA’s ability to protect public health and the health of the environment that sustains us. We need support with all we’ve got the only existing proposal that could stop the insanity that emerges when private corporate interest overrides our public interest. One example of the insanity: 1 out of every 10 children in the US suffers from air pollution/dirty energy related asthma–the most frequent long-term children’s disease. Hispanic children are 60 percent more likely to have asthma, as compared to non-Latino whites and Latinos are 3X as likely to die of asthma. Out of the top 10 most polluted cities in the country, six of them count with Latinos as 40% or more of their total population. In total, 66% of Latinos conduct their daily lives in areas where the air is not up to the federal government’s safe air quality standards. Now these are the good news: Latinos are not only the nation’s largest minority group and the fastest growing population segment—we stand in the U.S. 50+ million strong- but nine out of ten Latinos want the Federal government to take action on carbon emissions and the threat of climate change. Report after report confirm that Latinos know that carbon pollution is critical to protecting the health of our families and communities and consider the protection of our land, air, water and all life more than a policy priority, a core moral value. EarthJustice is working 24/7 to bring the voice of real people to the table and I beg you to stand in solidarity with climate action and take a few minutes to make a statement I can bring to DC next week. Click HERE and tell us why action on climate is important to you. https://l.facebook.com/l/ For the basics of THE CLEAN POWER PLAN and how it constitutes a historic moment in reducing carbon pollution from the largest source of US global warming read HERE http://l.facebook.com/l/6AQEY_ Also in Spanish in collaboration with the Hispanic Access Foundation, SOY ROJO https://l.facebook.com/l/ Si se puede, Irene
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