Broken promises

I have unconditionally supported our president since his candidacy, but as the mother of a child with asthma, I feel deeply disappointed in the choice he recently made to delay critical air-quality standards for smog pollution. Given the opportunity to follow the laws set forth in the Clean Air Act and set a protective smog standard, Obama chose to follow the legacy of George Bush. Minnesotans should be appalled at the Obama administration's failure to protect families from air pollution.

If this was an economic choice by the administration, it was a poor one. Smog pollution costs us billions of dollars in health costs each year at the current standard for emissions. To be clear, we are talking about nearly 4,000 heart attacks, up to 8,000 premature deaths, and up to 40,000 asthma attacks yearly in the United States that are attributed to smog. My child will have a handful of these asthma attacks this year. If Obama were the father of an asthmatic, would he have chosen Big Oil?

I will watch carefully to see if the president breaks any more promises to our children. My assumption was that the Obama legacy would, at the very least, live up to the Clean Air Act. Decisions regarding the air we breathe should be based upon scientific evidence and prioritize our health. Doing otherwise is not a choice that we can afford.

Shawna Hedlund, Minneapolis

See the online article from the Pioneer Press website - Sept 15, 2011