"Earth Day a Time to Focus on the Future of Our Environment and Children"

"Earth Day a Time to Focus on the Future of Our Environment and Children"
April 22, 2005

"On this 35th Earth Day, we honor the great strides we have made toward protecting America's precious resources and wildlife for future generations. However, if we want our children's children to enjoy the same environment we have been lucky enough to live in, we must also focus on the necessary tasks to build upon those achievements.

"Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has made these tasks doubly hard by actively seeking to roll back critical bipartisan policies like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act that protect our environment and public health.

"Passed in 1970, the Clean Air Act has resulted in the reductions of harmful pollution emissions that pose grave health risks, particularly to those people suffering from asthma and lung disease. But since 2002, the Bush Administration and many Congressional Republicans have been pushing their so-called "Clear Skies" initiative, a weakening of the Clean Air Act that allows industry and special interests to inject more pollutants into the air we breathe.

"Additionally, the Clean Water Act has significantly improved the quality of water in our lakes, streams and coastal waterways. Yet President Bush supports cuts in funding to replace old sewage plants with new ones. If we discontinue efforts to clean up our wastewater, children will not be able to swim or fish in our rivers, lakes and oceans.

"I believe it is wrong to weaken provisions like these that make our air and water cleaner and preserve our public lands. Earth Day is a time to rededicate ourselves to protecting our children, our children's health, and our children's future by fully enforcing the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, ridding our lakes and streams of mercury contamination and speeding up the cleanup of dangerous toxic waste sites.

"In Congress, I will support policies that ensure public health and environmental protection are not just buzz words, but real actions that result in positive improvements in the quality and safety of our air, water and land."

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/mo05_cleaver/22APR05EarthDay.html