FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 8, 2012
Contact: Maggie Kao, 202-675-2384
U.S. SENATE REJECTS POLLUTER PILE-ON
Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Senate began a series of votes to amend the transportation authorization (S. 1813), a bill that takes positive steps towards modernizing our nation’s transportation system, reducing our dangerous dependence on oil, relieving the burden that American families are feeling as gas prices rise and ensuring we have clean air to breathe and safe water to drink. Unfortunately, the Senate also took up unrelated amendments to the bipartisan bill, including a pile-on of anti-environmental amendments.
In response, Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, issued the following response:
“The Sierra Club applauds the Senate for soundly rejecting the bevy of polluter giveaway amendments offered on the Senate transportation bill today.
“These amendments included attempts to open our coasts to more disastrous oil drilling, block life-saving protections from toxic mercury for pre-natal babies and young children, greenlight the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline and provide many more giveaways straight from corporate polluters’ wish lists.
“At a time when gas prices are climbing to four dollars a gallon, American families need real solutions, not more giveaways to the polluter lobby. The Senate should focus on creating jobs and reducing our dependence on oil by repairing our infrastructure and investing in clean, convenient transportation choices, such as transit, biking and walking.”
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Sierra Club opposed these key amendments:
- Vitter #1535 (OCS) – Threatens our coastal economies and ecosystems from Bristol Bay, Alaska to North Carolina’s Outer Banks with new offshore drilling.
- Collins #1660 (Boiler MACT) – Blocks soon-to-be finalized standards that would reduce toxic air pollution, including mercury, from industrial boilers and guts key provisions of the Clean Air Act.
- Hoeven #1537 (Keystone pipeline) –
Permits the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline.
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