Biden Administration Moves to Tighten Limits on Deadly Air Pollution
New York TimesNov 26, 2022
Record 64M Americans Face Daily Spikes in Deadly Particle Pollution
story
Image copyright: AFP/Getty Images [via Axios]
The Facts
According to the American Lung Association's (ALA) "State of the Air" report released Wednesday, unhealthy air pollution levels from 2019-2021 affected more than one-third of US residents — 17.6M fewer people than the ALA's last report.
With nearly 120M people facing unhealthy air quality, 54% are people of color, who are 64% more likely than White people to live in a county with a failing grade for at least one of the ALA's air quality measures, which are ground-level ozone air pollution, annual particle pollution, and short-term spikes in particle pollution.
The Spin
Left narrative
Climate change and air pollution have long proven detrimental to the nation as a whole and to people of color more specifically. The only difference is that today, reports like this provide concrete evidence of how these communities endure disproportionately higher rates of negative health effects. While both California and the Biden admin. are working to mitigate these risks at the state and national levels, more must be done to transition the US away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy sources.
Right narrative
While liberal elites pat themselves on the back for fighting racism and climate change simultaneously, they, of course, will be free from the negative consequences their policies will have on the poor — particularly people of color. Investing in natural gas and nuclear energy could also help the US reach its 90% renewable electric grid goal while saving people money, but the left is more concerned with pursuing its power-based ideology. When these policies fail, they will blame racism again and continue gaslighting Americans into voting Democrat.
