Gina McCarthy has been tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, and given her track record of protecting America's families from toxic pollution, her confirmation will help us all breathe easier.

The average American may not be aware of how these sequester cuts will impact the air that they breathe. Perhaps, most surprising to them, would be how the affected programs that reduce air pollution will shape the state of national health for everyone.

Later this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is poised to adopt stricter limits on exposure to one of the leading sources of poor air quality: soot.

People everywhere have a sacred right to clean air. Let's make sure we protect that right here at home and our children will breathe easier.

You may hear it called black carbon or even elemental carbon. Scientists getting technical will call it the "light-absorbing part of particles suspended in the atmosphere." Let's just keep it simple and call it soot.

Republicans are right, of course: cleaning up the air can be expensive. But as president Obama -- and even Mitt Romney in his better moments -- must realize, it is not nearly so costly as failing to act.

Recently, I learned about a new type of dirt that is particularly harmful to children. It's called soot.

What's more, soot pollution is also the cause of hazy views in our national parks. Asthma and you can't even enjoy the iconic views in places like the Grand Canyon or the Great Smoky Mountains? Come on.

Asthma was once just an academic concern for Sylvia Brandt, who has spent years studying the chronic lung condition and calculating its tragic toll. N...

TWITTER: @GreenNewsReport. The 'GNR' is also now available on your cell phone via Stitcher Radio's mobile app!. IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: White Hou...

TWITTER: @GreenNewsReport. The 'GNR' is also now available on your cell phone via Stitcher Radio's mobile app!. IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The owner...

Recently, a misguided political movement, has launched a full-on assault on America's environmental and public health safeguards. And it's got clean air protections square in its crosshairs.

The EPA has been under concerted attack by members of the new Congress. Makes me wonder: are EPA's new, weakened rules on hazardous air pollutants intended as a peace offering -- or white flag -- to their opponents?

Recently, the EPA announced that cement companies will have to clean up high levels of mercury, soot, and smog coming from their plants. Like most EPA efforts, this initiative drew industry ire.