Agency removes the foundational pillars of U.S. pollution rules as climate crisis escalates
Media Contact: Amy Rawe, SACE, 865-235-1448, amyr@cleanenergy.org
Yesterday, the White House announced that tomorrow, Feb. 12, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin is expected to formally rescind the Endangerment Finding, a 16-year-old scientific finding that carbon dioxide pollution and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. This move will leave the pollution responsible for climate change virtually completely unregulated by the federal government. It represents a dramatic escalation by the Trump administration to advance the interests and profits of the fossil fuel oil and gas industries, with blatant disregard for public health and the accelerating climate crisis.
Dr. Stephen A. Smith, Executive Director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said, “The Trump administration is recklessly undermining the rules and agencies established to protect Americans’ health and our environment, while at the same time gaslighting Americans by telling us that climate disruption isn’t a threat. We can see with our own eyes the parade of horribles of repeating record-breaking climate disasters. The last ten years have been the ten hottest years on record.
“We had more flash flood warnings last year than ever before, driven by climate warming, and we’ve seen far too many families and communities face the deadly and tragic consequences. It defies logic and common sense for the Trump administration to remove the foundational pillars of our pollution rules when the EPA’s sole job is to protect the people and places we love.”
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) wrote about the Endangerment Finding and Administrator Zeldin’s proposed rescission on our website last fall, and has documented and written about some of the other similar actions taken by Administrator Zeldin and the Trump administration in their “Polluters First Agenda” here and here.
About the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Since 1985, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has worked to promote responsible and equitable energy choices to ensure clean, safe and healthy communities throughout the Southeast. Learn more at www.cleanenergy.org.
