Press Mention Asheville Citizen-Times April 14, 2011
Topical Mention
Grateful Shuler voted against environmental rollbacks
In this mention
An op-ed by Jennifer Rennicks praising Rep. Heath Shuler's vote against legislation that would allow major polluters to emit unlimited carbon pollution. The author, a mother of an asthmatic child, frames environmental protection as a moral duty in light of recent disasters including the 2008 coal ash disaster in Middle Tennessee, the Gulf Coast oil spill, and Japan's nuclear meltdown.
As a mother who's held an asthmatic child struggling to breathe, I am sincerely grateful that he cast a vote on her behalf and the 200,000 other children in North Carolina who suffer from asthma instead of supporting the profits of large polluters
Jennifer Rennicks
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Full transcript
Grateful Shuler
voted against
environmental
rollbacks
Written by
Jennifer Rennicks, Asheville
11:06 AM, Apr. 15, 2011
Recently, the House of Representatives
voted on legislation to allow our nation's
biggest polluters to dump unlimited
amounts of carbon pollution in our air.
Although the bill did pass, I'm pleased
Rep. Heath Shuler was not a supporter. As
a mother who's held an asthmatic child
struggling to breathe, I am sincerely
grateful that he cast a vote on her behalf
and the 200,000 other children in North
Carolina who suffer from asthma instead of
supporting the profits of large polluters.
It's hard to understand who could want to
rollback environmental and health
protections after three environmental
disasters in a row. Middle Tennessee is still
dealing with the 2008 coal ash disaster
and it will be years, perhaps decades,
before Gulf Coast communities recover
from last year's oil spill. Displaced
residents in Japan are struggling with the
ongoing nuclear meltdown after the
earthquake and tsunami. While some may
breathe a sigh of relief that none of those
disasters happened here in WNC, but for
the grace of God go we. When we have the
ability to protect the least among us from
many forms of pollution, it is a moral duty
to do well by doing good.