This post originally appeared on PunditMom.
Moms are all about clean.
Clean clothes, clean kids, clean houses. If you’re like me, the clean house thing usually ends up at the bottom of that list, though now that PunditGirl is a “tween,” at least I’m not tripping over baby toys anymore, though I do still find the occasional Polly Pocket part in the sofa cushions.
But moms also love clean water, clean neighborhoods and clean air. That’s one of the reasons I signed on to be a part of the Moms Clean Air Force, to advocate for allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job when it comes to cleaning up the environment for our kids and, eventually, our grand-kids. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there is a process where you can weigh in with the EPA quickly and easily to let Uncle Sam know where you stand on less polluted air. You can find all the links and info at this post.
I’ve been a little sad, though, that President Obama hasn’t been very vocal about environmental issues. I know he has a few other things on his plate these days, but I expect the leader of the free world to be a master at multi-tasking!
Maybe he’s recently started getting some ‘you ought to be talking more about the environment’ vibes because he held a town hall event about energy outside Philadelphia promoting wind-powered options, praising one Pennsylvania town for their wind carbines and calling them the future of American energy. His focus was on the cost of our oil dependence, rather than the health benefits of cleaner air, but I suppose any talk about less toxic air is a good start.
A commitment to more wind-powered energy would be a great addition to go with the pending Clean Air Act rules that that would, for the first time, mandate controls on the amount of toxic chemicals, like mercury, that power plants could spew into the air. We’re not just talking about the air looking cleaner, it would actually be cleaner if the EPA could actually live up to its mission. Studies have shown that tens of thousands of deaths could be prevented each year if we could limit the amount of toxic chemicals in the air we breathe. So even if that’s going to cost a few extra dollars, I’d like to believe that if these corporations have been able to convince the Supreme Court that they should have some rights as “citizens,” they ought to have the responsibilities, as well.