7-23-2020
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler recently announced a proposal that would undermine the Clean Air Act's reach by ignoring evidence, which would weaken pollution protections and bias analyses.
This is yet another attempt to undo public health protections and make it harder to enact new ones—take action to reject Administrator Wheeler's attack on science and clean air protections.
The new proposal would restructure how the EPA considers the benefits of various air pollution regulations. By ignoring long-standing economic best practices and the latest peer-reviewed science, the rule devalues—and even outright eliminates from consideration—many of the public health benefits from cutting pollution.
Erasing numbers from a spreadsheet doesn't change the reality that cutting pollution saves lives and improves health. The EPA is accepting public comments on this proposal.
If finalized, this proposal would severely limit the EPA's long-term ability to issue strong, science-based emission standards. And it would exacerbate long-standing environmental injustices, especially for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of color, which suffer disproportionately from being exposed to higher levels of air pollutants. Emerging research also suggests that long-term exposure to high levels of air pollution is associated with higher death rates from COVID-19.
The EPA needs to uphold and strengthen air pollution protections, not skew the outcome to favor industry profit over public health. It is critical that we stop this dangerous change in how the EPA evaluates air pollution protections
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler recently announced a proposal that would undermine the Clean Air Act's reach by ignoring evidence, which would weaken pollution protections and bias analyses.
This is yet another attempt to undo public health protections and make it harder to enact new ones—take action to reject Administrator Wheeler's attack on science and clean air protections.
The new proposal would restructure how the EPA considers the benefits of various air pollution regulations. By ignoring long-standing economic best practices and the latest peer-reviewed science, the rule devalues—and even outright eliminates from consideration—many of the public health benefits from cutting pollution.
Erasing numbers from a spreadsheet doesn't change the reality that cutting pollution saves lives and improves health. The EPA is accepting public comments on this proposal.
If finalized, this proposal would severely limit the EPA's long-term ability to issue strong, science-based emission standards. And it would exacerbate long-standing environmental injustices, especially for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of color, which suffer disproportionately from being exposed to higher levels of air pollutants. Emerging research also suggests that long-term exposure to high levels of air pollution is associated with higher death rates from COVID-19.
The EPA needs to uphold and strengthen air pollution protections, not skew the outcome to favor industry profit over public health. It is critical that we stop this dangerous change in how the EPA evaluates air pollution protections
