Just like a poorly written movie script when you can predict the next scene, it was predictable that House Majority Leader Virginia Eric Cantor (R) would soon turn his attention squarely on dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in service of his top donors.
In a memo to House Republicans titled: Upcoming Jobs Agenda. Cantor and his republican colleagues propose to create job growth, not by stimulus funding that would put Americans back to work rebuilding our roads, bridges and highways. Cantor’s plan: cut regulations on energy polluters, and the jobs will follow.
“By pursuing a steady repeal of job-destroying regulations, we can help lift the cloud of uncertainty hanging over small and large employers alike, empowering them to hire more workers,” wrote Cantor.
While Cantor wants to metaphorically lift the “cloud” of uncertainty hanging over polluters of our air, water and natural resources. The fact is, if he succeeds, there is no uncertainty about the cloud of toxins that will cause thousands of new cases of asthma, heart disease, and even deaths resulting from the increased amounts of smog and soot in the air we breath.
Similar to the air pollution that Cantor wants Americans to breathe, his contention that implementing these regulations would kill jobs has a foul smell. Even if some jobs were lost in the transition, at the very least, Cantor is willing to maintain current levels of pollution in exchange for hoping corporate polluters would create more jobs. Is this a game of Russian roulette Americans are willing to play with their health?
Perhaps there is a more transparent reason why Cantor is motivated to protect corporate polluters at the expense of Americans’ health. Major tea party backer Koch Industries and Richmond based Dominion Resources, would greatly benefit from Cantor’s proposals. Dominion Resources, the energy giant that is based in Cantor’s district is one of his top 2010 donors, according to Open Secrets, which tracks campaign finance.
Koch Industries and Dominion Resources have the dubious distinction of being listed on Political Economy Research Institute’s 2010 Top 100 Polluters. Koch is listed 10th, and Dominion Resources 51st. The top 2 polluters are Bayer Group and Exxon-Mobil.
It’s doubtful the television media would announce America’s Top 100 Polluters. It’s neither sexy nor funny, and because many of these polluters are the largest buyers of media ad space. The public is more likely to know if Jada Pinkett Smith is cheating on her husband or that Beyonce is having a baby. Pollution, however, continues to be a major health problem in the United States, and it affects all of us.
According to the American Lung Association’s report: The State of Air 2011. Half of the United States population live in counties that have unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution. Indeed, air pollution isn’t an abstract issue facing Americans. If you have a child with asthma, a loved one with heart disease, or emphysema, Cantor’s agenda to ban or restrict these new regulations have direct health consequences.
Cantor, a tea party favorite, has his sights set on blocking the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which would cut power plant smog and soot that travels across state lines. For instance, if you live in Maryland, do you really want to breath the soot and toxins from a Dupont plant in Delaware?
The Rule, which is scheduled to take effect in 2014, would save up to 34,000 lives per year, and net and estimated 700 new jobs, according to the EPA.
Another EPA regulation targeted by Cantor is the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards targeting coal burning plants that produce acid rain. Although Americans greatly rely on coal burning to produce half of their electricity, coal burning also produces toxins such as mercury, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals that emit into our air and water. Breathing these chemicals lead to a number of ailments, including stunting brain development in children, lung diseases and even premature deaths.
The EPA Fact Sheet estimates implementing these new mercury and toxic regulations by 2015, will not only save 17,000 lives annually, and $140 billion annually in health costs, but also create 9,000 net jobs.
The implementation for these regulations has been in planning for years, wrote EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in a Huffington Post Op-ed. “Pledges to weaken or slow proposed standards, many of which have been developed over years and with industry input, prevent businesses from investing in those jobs,” Jackson wrote. Indeed, if Cantor’s proposal succeeds, he’s creating more uncertainty for energy producers because it will only delay the inevitable.
If you’re a member of the tea party, a democrat, republican, or independent the one undisputed resource that we share is the air we breathe. As Americans, we have to ask ourselves if we want to live in the twenty-first century still producing and breathing 19th century pollution? If we are going to compete in this global economy, we have to change, not just how we produce energy, but also how we regulate our energy.
[Update: Cross State Air Pollution Rule withdrawn by President Obama]
C Stone Brown is the former Washington Bureau Chief of DiversityInc and Contributing Editor of Crisis Magazine. He currently lives in Washington D.C. He can be reached at [email protected]