EPA, We Need Strong Air Pollution Safeguards

Today Sierra Club activists took to the sidewalks in front of the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, DC, urging EPA to immediately issue strong clean air protections.

Dressed in yellow 'Beyond Coal' t-shirts and displaying human-sized inhalers, the activists urged the EPA, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and the Obama Administration to stop postponing the announcement of the new safeguard that would clean up our air and improve public health by reducing ground-level ozone pollution (also know as smog). Late last month, the EPA pushed back its deadline for issuing the standard for the fourth time and has yet to set another date.


Coal-fired power plants are a major source of pollution (as are cars), which causes asthma attacks and many other respiratory illnesses. The longer the Obama Administration delays this standard, the longer American children suffer - especially on Code Red and Code Orange air pollution days where people are encouraged to stay inside because of excessive air pollution.

You can help tell the Obama Administration the same thing - issue a strong, science-based pollution standard immediately to clean up our air and protect our health.

-- Photos by Javier Sierra.