Yesterday, Washington and Baltimore were under a
"Code Orange" threat. The threat will continue today. But this wasn't because of a perceived terrorist strike, or low poll rankings. It was the very real, very dangerous conditions created by excess heat, humidity and pollution. Kids, the elderly, and people with asthma were advised to stay indoors. Schools shut down early.
As the Baltimore Sun pointed out this morning in a scathing editorial, these Code Orange threats to American health are brought to you by GOP policies:
The harm posed by lax enforcement is clear. Over the last three years, the amount of pollution churned out by [Maryland's] aging, coal-fired plants has increased 3 percent over the previous three years. That may not sound like much, but it represents more than 32,000 tons of pollution pumped into the air. Yet even when these plants report violations, the state rarely takes action. MDE officials would have us believe it's a mere coincidence that the air is becoming more polluted at a time when polluters aren't being fined...
More below the fold.
As the Sun points out, Bob Ehrlich and the GOP likes to call these policies "Business Friendly." But there's
nothing business friendly about a state where people can't go outside. When we're stuck in our homes, we're not out shopping. When we're sick from air pollution, we're not working at our jobs. And when our elderly and children have asthma attacks that send them to the hospital, we all pay the price of increased healthcare costs. This isn't business friendly. It may be friendly to certain corporate interests in the short run, but in the long run, everyone will pay for these policies.
Yesterday, the Sun ran a silly little scare piece by Margo Thorning of the ExxonMobil funded American Council for Capital Formation, entitled "Can We Afford to Heed Gore?" Of course, when you ask if we can afford to ignore a politican, the answer is usually yes. But the real question for America is whether or not we can continue to do business as usual. No enforcement of pollution laws, no corporate oversight, worsening air quality and dangerous conditions for our children. Can we afford that? Can we afford to ignore reality for short-term profits for a few?
Make no mistake about it, the entire country is under a code Orange threat. That threat is the GOP environmental degradation that threatens each and every one of us in a real and tangible way.