U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the new chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, is sponsoring federal legislation aimed at blocking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from updating Clean Air Act pollution standards. Today his committee is expected to pass Upton's "bad air bill" in a largely party-line vote. The Republican majority in the House expects to pass the bill before the Easter recess.
Obviously, people should be very alarmed by Rep. Upton's legislation because preventing EPA from doing its job of updating and enforcing Clean Air Act standards would pose a severe health threat to us all. But I decided to tackle this serious threat in a not-so-serious way: by creating a parody song about the bill based on the classic Billy Joel hit "Uptown Girl." With the help of my colleauge Lauren Zingarelli we hope you enjoy this Karaoke-style video we created.
Go ahead, check it out and sing along. Better yet, help spread the word about Upton's harmful bill so we can stop it from becoming law. Politicians in Congress should put the health of all Americans before polluters and let the EPA do its job!
This post was first published on NRDC's Switchboard blog.