Tell Congress: Don't sacrifice the environment to cut the deficit 10OKT12

IT is the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act but all the laws and regulations that protect us and our environment at risk if sequestration kicks in on 1JAN13. Please send a message to your Representative and Senators asking them to keep the EPA and other environmental regulatory agencies adequately funded. From the NRDC...


The programs that protect our air, our water, our wildlife and our national parks are facing severe cutbacks.

Unless Congress acts soon, those programs will suffer severe, indiscriminate across-the-board budget cuts, and at the same time tax credits that boost clean energy will expire. To make matters worse, some in Congress want to cut environmental protection even further, using the need to reduce the deficit as an excuse to hammer away at popular programs that protect health and the environment.

How would the across-the-board cuts affect you? There would be a shortage of meat inspectors, raising the risk of disease outbreaks; almost $200 million would be cut from fixing or building drinking water and sewage systems in your communities; more than $400 million would be slashed from finding newer, cleaner ways to produce and use energy; funding for national parks would be cut; and work to protect your air and water would struggle. And the damage under the House Republicans' spending plan would be even worse.

Congress needs to come up with a plan that will cut the deficit without harming the environment. Environmental programs have already been cut; the deficit can be reduced through a balanced, bipartisan program that looks at all aspects of the budget.

What to do Send a message right now telling your senators and representative that slashing environmental programs is unacceptable.