skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

EPA Nomination: Both Sides say Putting Aside Politics is the Right Choice

play audio
Play

Friday, May 17, 2013   

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The controversy surrounding the nomination of President Barack Obama's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency has individuals from both sides of the aisle saying good governance should trump politics.

Thursday, a Senate committee backed the nomination of Gina McCarthy along party lines, a week after Republicans boycotted a scheduled hearing on the matter.

McCarthy served five Republican governors, including former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, who says McCarthy’s work on clean air regulations focused on process and outcomes, not politics.

"She makes sure that the business community is heard and they have a legitimate position,” Swift says. “She listens to legislators and she gets the job done in a bipartisan way, and to me, we need more of that in Washington right now."

Efforts by Republicans to stall the nomination had focused on the EPA's policies rather than McCarthy herself. The nomination now moves to the full Senate, but there's no word on when the vote will be held.

David Green, president of the Lordstown chapter of the United Auto Workers, says fuel standards put into place while McCarthy worked at the EPA are putting people to work in Ohio. He says there’s a need for leaders who support a stronger focus on the environment, because a good environment is also good for the economy.

"It's what people want and there's a stronger focus on our environment today than there ever has been,” he says. “I think it's only going to increase as time goes on. So, that's the right thing, is to have the proper people in place."

As assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, McCarthy worked on new policies that will nearly double the fuel economy of new cars and light trucks and cut carbon pollution of vehicles in half by 2025.

Swift was disappointed by the Republican boycott last week. She says both McCarthy and the president deserve an up or down vote on the confirmation before the full Senate.

Swift points out that it was a Republican president who established the EPA, because both parties understood the importance of cleaning up and protecting the air, water and land.

"Protecting the health of Americans,” she says, “is frankly, and should be always, an issue of good governance not an issue of partisanship and political point-scoring."





get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021