JOHN,

People across the country face health complications every day due to unchecked corporate polluters poisoning our neighborhoods.

Where pollution happens is a policy choice, and corporations tend to concentrate their industrial pollution in Black and brown communities. Higher concentrations of pollution have compounding harms for public health—leading to high rates of cancer, respiratory diseases, infant mortality, and more.

To address this environmental racism and protect our public health from corporate polluters, I just reintroduced the Cumulative Impacts Act. The bill would require the EPA to consider the cumulative harms of pollution in an area before granting permits for polluting facilities—and to deny permits for facilities that would endanger public health. This would be a revolutionary, transformative change for our neighbors who just want to breathe clean air.

Please sign on today to support the Cumulative Impacts Act, which would protect our right to clean air and water, centering public health over polluter profits.

In solidarity,

Rashida

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Rashida Tlaib
Date: Sat, Aug 12, 2023
Subject: Sign to protect public health from corporate polluters
To: [email protected]

JOHN,

Listening to our residents, especially our seniors talk about having some of the worst asthma this year is devastating. We can't let this become our new normal.

With the 12th Congressional District having some of the worst air quality in the world, it's time for us to move with urgency.

We have seen it over and over again where corporate polluters operate in majority Black and brown communities like ours. This has compounding harms for public health—leading to high rates of cancer, respiratory diseases, infant mortality, and more. For example, Metro Detroit has some of the highest asthma rates in the country, and Black Detroiters are over three times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma.

Something has to change. This is why I reintroduced the Cumulative Impacts Act.

The bill would require the EPA to consider the cumulative harms of pollution in an area before granting permits for polluting facilities—and to deny permits for facilities that would endanger public health. This would be a revolutionary, transformative change for our neighbors who just want to breathe clean air.

Please sign today to support the Cumulative Impacts Act, which would require environmental regulators to prioritize people’s health over the profits of corporate polluters.

When approving new polluting facilities, the EPA doesn’t currently take into account the cumulative impacts—the public health and environmental effects of past, present, and future pollution releases in the community.

The Cumulative Impacts Act would require the EPA to analyze cumulative impacts in permitting decisions under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and deny permit applications unless the applicant can demonstrate a reasonable certainty of no harm to the community or vulnerable groups.

This legislation will protect and empower residents of frontline communities who are living with the devastating effects of climate change and fossil fuel development. That includes residents of Dearborn’s South End, which is home to an extreme concentration of corporate polluters that sit directly across from schools, homes, and playgrounds.

Samra’a Luqman, a community advocate in the neighborhood, says: “We refuse to continue being the nation’s dumping ground for industries and corporations in the name of corporate greed. My family and our neighbors deserve to breathe clean air and drink clean water as basic human rights, and we need new laws that will put the well-being of impacted communities before the profits of the companies poisoning us.”

Yes, we all deserve to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Where pollution occurs is a policy choice, and we can change the EPA’s permitting process to put people’s health first—particularly in communities already overburdened by air and water pollution.

Please sign today to support the Cumulative Impacts Act, to rectify environmental racism and protect our public health from corporate polluters.

Thank you for taking action. I will continue to hold corporate polluters accountable for treating communities of color like mine as sacrifice zones. Together, we’ll keep fighting for a world where all of us can thrive.  

In solidarity,

Rashida