The Clean Air Act turns 21 – barely

21 years ago, President George H. W. Bush – remember him? He's the father of that confused recovering alcoholic from Texas who got us into those unwinnable wars and destroyed the economy – signed a handy bipartisan piece of legislation called the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

That law protects Americans from all kinds of hazardous air pollutants such as mercury, acid gases, arsenic, formaldehyde, dioxins and other unpleasant things that corrode your lungs and shorten your life. It was passed with strong bipartisan support, back when there was such as thing, from 89 U.S. Senators and 401 Representatives. But this was back in the day when the fundamental guiding principle of the right-wing was something more noble than "every man for himself".

Predictably, the Clean Air Act now under attack by the modern-day right wing and its high-pollutin' corporate cronies, who want to scale it back to the point where any chemical company can set up shop in your backyard and asphyxiate your caged parrot before you can even teach it to scream "Help!"

Here are some snippets from the American Lung Association in support of the Clean Air Act. Read, digest, and consider whether or not ensuring the continued survival of the Clean Air Act is worth the effort:

The Clean Air Act has resulted in tremendous benefits to public health. Last year the EPA estimated that in 2010 alone the measures taken as a result of the 1990 amendments prevented more than 160,000 premature deaths, 86,000 emergency room visits, 1.7 million asthma attacks and more than 16 million missed days of work or school. The benefits exceeded the costs by 30 to 1, and by 2020 this law will achieve two trillion dollars in benefits at a cost of only $65 billion. Cleaner air is a big winner for the health of the people and the health of the economy. Yet, there is more to be done.

In the 1990 Amendments, Congress directed the EPA to set strong standards to reduce toxic air pollutants emitted from power plants. Sadly 21 years later, this and other critical provisions of the Clean Air Act have not been put in place, and some in Congress are siding with big corporate polluters to block the implementation of common-sense standards that will protect the public from dangerous air pollution. Congress needs to stand up for public health, not the polluters, and forgo efforts to block the scientists at EPA.

Parents who have lost children to asthma attacks, seniors with chronic lung disease, and children with asthma are all fighting for air and cannot wait any longer for these standards.

The President needs to protect the Clean Air Act by finalizing this long overdue toxic air pollution standard that will protect the health of everyone in America and save thousands of lives each year.

Time is slipping away, and if the most lifesaving provisions of the Clean Air Act are not implemented now, people will continue to get sick and some will die prematurely as they breathe dirty, and even deadly, air.