In June, the United States hit an incredible milestone: by retiring toxic coal plants across the country, Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign helped successfully prevent one million asthma attacks and saved over 60,000 lives nationwide.
The very next day, the Trump Administration announced two proposals to roll back restrictions on pollution from gas- and coal-fired plants. Just one day after we crossed a major milestone for protecting our communities from pollution, Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin thrust them back into danger in order to please a handful of fossil fuel executives.
Specifically, the administration has proposed repealing Clean Air Act Section 111 carbon pollution standards, which limit greenhouse gas emissions from gas- and coal-fired power plants, and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which limit mercury, acid gasses, and other heavy metal emissions from these plants. In addition to proposing these repeals, which could take a year or more to finalize, the EPA and the Trump Administration have specifically encouraged fossil fuel power plants and industrial emitters to apply for “Presidential exemptions” so they don’t have to comply in the meantime.
It is overwhelming and confusing to try and process every attack from this administration on our environment, our health, and our rights, so let’s be very clear about the impact these proposals will have: People will die if the Trump Administration gives polluters a pass to poison our air. Throughout our history, American families have suffered countless losses because their loved ones developed cancer, asthma, and other awful diseases by breathing polluted air. The protections that Trump and Zeldin are trying to repeal are commonsense and non-negotiable; they are the minimum for what we should accept as we fight for everyone’s right to breathe clean air.
These rollbacks affect all of us. Our power sector is the largest stationary source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. It releases more climate pollution than over half of the world’s countries combined. This administration can falsely claim otherwise, but dirty power plants are fueling the extreme heatwaves and dangerous wildfires, floods, and hurricanes that are threatening lives across the country. According to the Sierra Club’s estimates, the greenhouse gas standards would reduce carbon pollution from the power sector by 68 percent. If we want to protect ourselves from the worst of climate change, we must go further, not backwards, in our fight against the fossil fuel industry.
The Trump Administration’s proposals will be particularly devastating for Americans living close to gas- and coal-fired plants. Repealing MATS would triple the amount of mercury, lead, arsenic, and chromium that the nation’s dirtiest plants are allowed to release. Breathing in these metallic toxins can cause cancer and other illnesses, and they're particularly threatening to pregnant women and young children. Yet thousands of Americans will be exposed to these toxins simply because Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin have determined that their health and their futures are a fair price to pay for billionaire kickbacks.
We cannot let this administration and the greed of fossil fuel executives destroy our climate, our communities, and our futures. Together, we’ve already accomplished so much, and we will keep fighting for progress. While the road ahead will be exceedingly difficult, we have the power to make our voices heard and demand that our lives be valued over a CEO’s bottom line. Now more than ever, we must speak up and hold this administration accountable.