Opinion

Dold’s vote helps protect air, health

Posted October 04, 2011 12:00 am

I am so very grateful Rep. Bob Dold stood up for clean air by voting against the TRAIN Act. Amid burgeoning House support for industrial smokestacks over public health, Rep. Dold recognized gutting the Clean Air Act would not serve to bolster our ailing economy. Instead, he had the fortitude to protect Chicago-area residents from having to shoulder an even greater health care burden as the result of weakened clean air protections.

Considering Cook County received an “F” on the American Lung Association’s most recent State of the Air report card for its number of high ozone and high particle pollution days, unlike his colleagues in Washington, Rep. Dold understands the urgent need to loosen the toxic chokehold pollution has on our community. Supporting the TRAIN Act only tightens the deadly death grip pollution has on our health and will leave future generations even worse off than we are today.

While Rep. Dold stood as a minority among his House colleagues in Washington, his courage to prioritize public health over hefty campaign contributions from big oil and energy lobbyists prove Rep. Dold is in fact in the people’s corner. We can only hope his example carries over to the Senate to ensure the TRAIN Act is finally derailed for good.

Harold Wimmer

President & CEO

American Lung Association in Illinois

Chicago

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