New Ad Campaign Drums Up Support for Obama's Clean Air Standards

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

March 7, 2012 | 9:53 AM

Environmental groups have bought air time in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre, and cities across the country aimed at garnering support for reduced carbon emissions from power plants. The ads begin airing Wednesday, ahead of the expected EPA proposal to cut pollution from new plants. The ads showing children with breathing aides were created by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.

“Carbon pollution poses serious threats to Americans’ health, our economy and the future of our children,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “But there are currently no federal limits on the amount of carbon being spewed into the air by the nation’s largest sources of carbon pollution – dirty coal-fired power plants.”

The ads focus on the soot and smog that can trigger asthma attacks. They will appear in 12 major media markets in three states: Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and in Washington, DC. Watch the ad below: