New England is not the “tailpipe” for Midwest power plants.
Though New England’s air is clean and safe, tea party-supported Sen. Kelly Ayotte has opted to side with President Obama and Senate Democrats in today’s Senate vote to rollback the EPA’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule.
The Nashua Telegraph reports:
U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte joined President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats defending a proposed air quality rule of the Environmental Protection Agency…
“This is an issue that is very important to New Hampshire,” Ayotte, Republican of Nashua, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “In New England, we don’t want to become the tailpipe for Midwestern power plants.”
Though the wind is westerly, Midwest power plant emissions to not “pollute” New England skies or threaten any New Englander’s health. And there is no scientific evidence that wafting emissions, to the extent they occur, have ever harmed anyone.
Ayotte will join other GOP disappointments (i.e., the Maine sisters and Scott Brown) in supporting Obama.
There are many valid arguments.
You can say that the effects are ludicrously overestimated in current models, and quote the fact that Texas apparently pollutes Granite County, Illinois but not anywhere in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, or Kansas.
You can say that the cost is insane compared to the benefits, running $10 billion per year or higher for paltry health benefits.
You can say that the power plant emissions are dwarfed by traffic emissions, which is the primary exposure of non-smokers to pollution.
However, no matter what you say, you will not be listened.
Sorry, Cassandra