H.R. 806, the so-called Ozone Standards Implementation Act, would (as you might guess) implement the EPA's 2015 ozone standards badly, first by delaying their implementation for years, and then by requiring fewer reviews of ozone pollutants and requiring the EPA to "obtain advice from its scientific advisory committee" before moving further with the standards. If that last item sounds odd to you, remember that the Trump Administration is packing the EPA's scientific advisory committee with fossil fuel cronies as we speak; guess what "advice" they'll give about implementing ozone standards? H.R. 806 passed the House on a near-party line vote (though more Republicans voted nay than Democrats voted yea); now it heads to the Senate, where you might be able to peel off Susan Collins if she thinks she'll be the only one, and you might be able to peel off Dean Heller if he's feeling vulnerable ,and you might be able to peel off John McCain if he's pissed off. Still, duty is duty, so Penn Environment helps you tell your Senators to protect clean air by rejecting H.R. 806.
Meanwhile, the California state legislature is mulling SB 190, which would end the state's practice of charging families administrative fees when they have children in the state's juvenile system. Turns out these fees can be quite onerous, particularly in a nation where almost half of us would have serious trouble scraping up $400 in case of an emergency, and some of these fees even violate federal law. And just as money bail effectively functions as an endless state detention system for poor folks who can't afford the bail, juvenile fees effectively keep children in that system long after it might actually have helped them, and thus also constitutes a serious abridgment of their freedoms. If you're tempted to say well don't get in trouble, then!, please do two things: 1) slap yourself, and 2) recall all the times in your own childhood you acted the fool, and all the times your friends' children acted the fool and you didn't judge them. Moms Rising helps you tell the California state legislature to protect working families from onerous state fees and pass SB 190.
Comments