THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 26 lines
Anti-environmental extremism in Congress is once again threatening all 50 states. This time, however, the attack is not being waged on our wildlife or wilderness areas; the area threatened is much closer to home. As we speak, we are in grave danger of losing air-quality standards.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, a House subcommittee chairman and leading member of Speaker Newt Gingrich's new Task Force on the Environment, has proposed a bill that would drastically weaken clean-air standards. The legislation he has proposed would repeal the basic tenet of the 1970 Clean Air Act, which states that national clean-air standards should be adequate to protect public health.
The Barton bill would pollute air quality with cost considerations. Pollutors would be allowed to spew poison into our air, and we would lose our right (as given by the Clear Air Act) to breath clean air.
Already 60,000 people die prematurely each year due to air pollution.
Repealing the Clean Air Act would increase this number of victims.
We need to urge Rep. Owen Pickett to repudiate Barton's legislation and make sure that it never gets into law.
VINCENT R. OLIVIERI JR.
Virginia Beach, June 15, 1996 by CNB