EPA and American Lung Association Caught Up in Scandal Over Attacks on Fred Upton

I don't actually think this is much of a scandal but wanted to have a eye catching headline. I've gotten a lot of calls today on this, and it has popped up on right-wing news sources like Big Government and I think Fox. It would be good if these supposed news sources actually checked their facts before making a scandal out of nothing, though. When I typed in EPA and American Lung Association on google, one of the first things to come up was a part of the EPA site that deals with budgets. This section showed that the EPA gave the ALA money for this purpose:

• American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest ($1,499,293): The American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest has been awarded funds to address a wide variety of on-road vehicles and equipment across Indiana. Through this grant, school buses and long haul trucks will receive idle reduction equipment, emission reduction devices, and/or trailer aerodynamics. 317 vehicles from 30 fleets are to be addressed through this grant. $387,492.09 in voluntary cost share will be leveraged by subgrantees to pay for the installation of technologies on these vehicles. These actions will reduce school children's exposure to diesel exhaust, while reducing fuel use and emissions from school buses and long-haul trucks across Indiana.
  • Federal funding: $1,499,293
  • Voluntary cost-share: $387,492.09
  • Projected emission reductions (lifetime):
    • NOx: 1,355.92 tons
    • PM: 37.33 tons
    • CO2: 58,633.87 tons

I assume the rest of the federal money (around $18 million over the decade) went towards similar grants, and not billboards attacking Rep. Upton.