American Lung Association: EPA’s Plan to Roll Back Critical Clean Air Protections is a Tragedy for Health

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced 31 planned actions to roll back and undermine various rules and programs that protect health from pollution. In response, the American Lung Association’s President and CEO Harold Wimmer issued the following statement:

“Under the guise of helping individual Americans, the actions announced today would constitute a historic handout to polluters at the direct expense of the health of families across America. 

“These actions are a direct contradiction of EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health, and directly conflict with the Administrator’s promise to ‘defend every American’s access to clean air.’ For example, EPA’s announcement today states that they will reconsider the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. These standards are critical to protect babies from harmful mercury from coal-fired power plants. 

“Other rules slated for rollback include lifesaving limits on particle pollution, health-protective measures to make new cars and trucks less polluting, and commonsense measures to clean up leaks that spew methane and toxic emissions. EPA is even reconsidering the finding that emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other climate-driving pollutants endanger public health. This endangerment finding is deeply rooted in both the science and the law and has been settled for decades. 

“It is important to remember that currently, all these clean air protections are still in place. EPA’s leadership can’t undo them with this announcement. They have to follow the law and go through a process to reconsider or revoke them. The Lung Association will use every tool in our toolbox to defend these lifesaving protections and protect the health of families.

“Clean air doesn’t just happen by default. To cut dangerous pollution from the air we breathe, it takes work. It takes strong standards. It takes implementation and enforcement, not rollbacks. If industry doesn’t play by the rules, pollution will increase, more people will get sick, more children will have asthma attacks, and lives will be lost. Through this suite of actions, EPA is certainly creating a historic legacy: one of disregard for America’s health. We will defend clean air and protect lung health every step of the way.”