Recent action

/uploads/5x/A5/5xA5i5mnfF9B0ccrNBOvkw/Fisherman-angling-on-the-river_Pavol-Kmeto_shutterstock_3254758.jpg

Will Congress overturn Bush administration policy?

As the U.S. House and Senate prepared this spring for hearings on legislation to strengthen clean water protections for smaller streams and wetlands, Environment Connecticut had enlisted our entire delegation as co-sponsors of the Clean Water Restoration Act.

Over the past five years, the Bush administration’s “No Protection” policy and decisions in favor of polluters made by the U.S. Supreme Court have chipped away at protections for smaller streams and wetlands, by narrowly defining the Clean Water Act.

The Bush administration’s policy has put 59 percent of the stream miles in the continental United States at risk of increased pollution. More than 110 million Americans rely on drinking water from public waters fed by these streams. The Clean Water Restoration Act would restore strong Clean Water Act protections to these streams and wetlands across the country.

Weâ€™re pushing for stronger protections for Connecticutâ€™s rivers, lakes and streams.

EPA comes up short on new smog standards

On Jan. 3, Margie Alt, executive director of our national federation, Environment America, joined several of our allies in urging Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson to strengthen the nation’s smog standards.

But Johnson announced in March that the agency would adopt a new smog rule that’s less protective of public health than the one recommended by EPA’s own scientific advisers. In addition, under the guise of “modernizing” the Clean Air Act, Johnson called for fundamental changes to the law, including requiring implementation costs to be considered in setting air quality standards and allowing states and local areas to ignore air pollution problems. Half of all Americans live in places where air pollution threatens public health. The EPA’s smog standards force polluters that exceed air pollution limits to clean up, but several studies show that smog standards are too low to protect public health.

Mission statement

We all want clean air, clean water and open space. But it takes independent research and tough-minded advocacy to win concrete results for our environment, especially when powerful interests stand in the way of environmental progress. That’s the idea behind Environment Connecticut. We focus exclusively on protecting Connecticut’s air, water and open space. We speak out and take action at the local, state and national levels to improve the quality of our environment and our lives.

Credits

Banner photo:Jennifer Nickert*. Global warming story: Brian Warren**, Kyryl Rudenko*. Recent action: Pavol Kmeto*. Grand Canyon story: T-Design*. Clean Cars story: EPA, Will Ross** (*under license from Shutterstock.com, **under a Creative Commons license).

Editor: Chris Phelps. Contributors: Cecily Anderson, Justin Boyles, Zach Cullimore, Matthew Curtis, Sara Landis, Ethan Lavine, Jenna Perry Leschuk, Ryan Moeckly, Leana Nordstrom, Dan Platt, Nathan Proctor, Drew Stephan, Jenne Turner, Chris Wand. Publications Director: Richard J. Hannigan.

Design: Public Interest GRFX (215) 985-1113