Industry-Funded Lawmakers Target Public Health and Environmental Protections

Image: Texas Republican Lamar Smith, chairman of the House science committee, wants to make it more difficult for the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job.

huffingtonpost.com - June 11, 2015 - Elliott Negin

Americans consistently support environmental safeguards by wide margins. A survey of likely 2016 voters, for instance, found that 91 percent of Americans endorse strengthening drinking water and air pollution protections, 87 percent want expanded renewable energy development, and 82 percent would like the government to place limits on power plant carbon pollution.

Despite those numbers, industry-backed legislators in both houses of Congress have been introducing -- and reintroducing -- benign-sounding bills over the last few years that would do the exact opposite of what a solid majority of Americans want. The sponsors of these Trojan Horse bills claim they would increase accountability and transparency, but in fact they would obstruct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies from enacting science-based rules, setting back public health and environmental protections for decades to come.

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