Dear NRDC Action Fund Supporter,
A decisive moment is now at hand in our year-long battle to defeat
President
Bush's Dirty Skies bill. The closely divided Senate Environment
Committee has
promised to vote on this pro-polluter legislation in the next two
weeks.
Few Americans grasp the terrible toll this bill would take on their
health and
the health of their families. Once you know what's at stake, I know
you'll want
to join me in defending the very air we breathe against the nation's
biggest
polluters.
We can win this fight, but only if we immediately marshal more
resources, buy
more ads and mobilize even more public pressure on the U.S. Senate.
Please go to https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/cleanair/donate.asp
to make an Emergency Contribution that will help defeat President
Bush's Dirty
Skies bill over the next two critical weeks. While you're at our
website you
can also send messages to your two senators.
This bill's central provisions were developed by some of America's
worst
polluters to give them a stranglehold on our right to clean air.
The bill would be responsible for more than 100,000 additional early
deaths and
more than two million additional asthma attacks through 2020. That's
compared
to enforcing the existing Clean Air Act.
It would allow power plants to spew nearly seven times as much mercury
into our
air until 2017 -- as compared to existing Clean Air Act requirements.
Mercury
from power plants and other industrial polluters causes brain damage in
children and has poisoned America's freshwater fish.
It would excuse aging power plants and potentially thousands of other
industrial polluters from installing modern pollution controls required
by the
Clean Air Act.
It would repeal Clean Air Act protections against haze and pollution in
our
national parks.
And yet, President Bush has the nerve to call this bill the "Clear
Skies" bill!
Three of my own kids -- and millions of others -- already struggle to
breathe
on bad air days because they suffer from asthma. Should our children
suffer
even more to enrich President Bush's corporate campaign contributors?
Most of us live in the 45 states that already post warnings about
eating fish
from mercury-contaminated lakes and streams. Should our families run an
even
greater risk of ingesting this terrible poison so that a few corporate
fat cats
can boost their profits?
If your answer is no, then now is the time to fight back! The upcoming
vote in
the Senate Environment Committee is too close to call. Your financial
support
can literally help make the difference between victory and defeat.
Please go to https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/cleanair/donate.asp
right now and donate whatever you can. Your gift will enable the NRDC
Action
Fund to arm millions of Americans with the damning facts about the
president's
Dirty Skies bill and mobilize massive grassroots pressure on key
senators.
Together we're going to break the polluters' stranglehold on Congress
and on
our right to clean air. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
NRDC Action Fund
. . .
