Title
Authorizing the City Council Committee on Law and Government to hold hearings to investigate the state of the air quality in Philadelphia and to recommend ways and means to improve its air quality, and therefore, the health of all Philadelphians.
Body
WHEREAS, The federal government in 1955 passed the national Air Pollution Control Act and then, over the next two decades, added a series of clean air and air quality control amendments, including the 1970 amendment, which was a major revision with much more demanding standards, which are still effect; and
WHEREAS, Council of the City of Philadelphia, in 1969, created the Air Management Code by ordinance; and
WHEREAS, Our efforts to clean our air have been significantly frustrated by the pollution that drifts in from surrounding counties and states; and
WHEREAS, President Bush in his recent State of the Union speech, talked about his new "Clear Skies Initiative," which would actually allow more pollution for longer periods of time than the current federal clean air laws; and
WHEREAS, The Clean Air and Clean Water Acts have received strong bipartisan support, including from President George Bush, Sr.; and
WHEREAS, Just recently the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sued the federal government over new regulations that would relax industrial pollution standards, and in doing so, joined nine northeastern states that did so last month; and
WHEREAS, Eighty percent of Pennsylvanians already live where air is deemed "unsafe to breathe" by the American Lung Association; and
WHEREAS, And the Bush administration's "new source review" rules make it easier for aging factories, mills, refineries and coal fired power plants to expand or modernize without upgrading pollution controls; and
WHEREAS, These new rules take effect March 3, 2003 and apply to 800 industrial facilities in Pennsylvania and 17,000 nationwide according t...
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