Under Trump, the EPA Seeks to Rescind Argument Greenhouse Gas Emissions Endanger Human Health
Under the direction of President Trump, and as the nation suffers through another deadly summer heat wave, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to rescind its landmark 2009 legal opinion that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health.
Hello? Record heat waves. Draughts and raging wildfires in the American West. Deadly record rain dumps and flooding in the Appalachian Mountains. The evidence is stronger than ever that the climate crisis driven by rising human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases is an existential threat to human lives and ultimately human civilization itself. This is yet another way the Trump Administration is completely out of touch with the lives of everyday people.
Eliminating EPA’s Office of Research & Development
Outrageously, facts simply don’t matter to the Trump Administration, and its thoroughly politicized EPA leadership is calling the shots to undo everything which underlies or supports efforts to control the threat of climate change. When science supports conclusions that don’t fit with the Trump fossil fuel agenda, well, then, science at the EPA must go. The Trump EPA announced on July 18 that it was eliminating its science research arm and will begin firing hundreds of chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists employed there.
“The Trump Administration’s systematic dismantling of environmental protections in just the last few weeks represents a ramp up of their unprecedented assault on public health, climate action, and energy affordability. The elimination of critical scientific investments, replacement of career experts, creation of bureaucratic roadblocks to clean energy, and blatant disregard for the law all indicate the Trump Administration’s fundamental rejection of the federal government’s responsibility to protect American families from environmental harm and costly energy demands. These destructive policies will cement decades of environmental rollbacks that will be felt by Americans today and long into the future through higher energy costs, dirtier air and water, and worsening climate impacts,” said League of Conservation Voters Vice President of Government Affairs Sara Chieffo in a memo shared last week.
States Must Lead on Climate; Take Action Today
This disastrous retreat in the federal executive branch makes it increasingly critical that states including North Carolina step up to maintain the work of transition to a clean energy economy. If you haven’t done so yet, please let your state legislators know today that you want them to uphold Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of legislation rolling back key state clean energy and climate action goals. Learn more and take action here.
