In the United States, low income Black and Brown communities are already more likely to suffer the impacts from permitted pollution from petroleum facilities and other polluting industries. In addition to these known and well documented disparities, regulators have allowed for even more pollution to be released onto these overburdened communities through regulatory loopholes in the Clean Air Act known as Startup, Shutdown, Malfunction, (SSM) leaving communities exposed to dangerous levels of toxic air pollution from multiple sources. Sierra Club and partners are working to ensure EPA implements strong rule-making that eliminates SSM loopholes and prioritizes the most impacted people by upholding equal protection laws. Dozens of community and environmental groups have called on President Biden to close SSM loopholes and end free passes to pollute.
EPA allows facilities like power plants and factories to emit as much pollution as they like during periods of Start-up, Shutdown, and Malfunctions. The amount of pollution emitted during so-called “SSM events” can be 100s to 1000s of times higher than normal operations.
Did you know that there are deadly loopholes in the EPA and state Clean Air Act rules? The Startup, Shutdown, and Malfunction loopholes allow polluters to ignore their permitted emission limitations -- and of course they take advantage of this! The consequences are even more deadly air pollution dumped on communities near plants and factories -- who already suffer the greatest burden from these poisons. It's time to close the loopholes! The Sierra Club has partnered with Earthjustice and community activists to create a video to shed light on this issue, and galvanize action to close the SSM loopholes.
Washington, D.C. – Today, congressional Republicans continued their efforts to prioritize polluters over people by holding an Energy and Commerce Committee legislative hearing on a new version of the “Smoggy Skies Act,” legislation to gut the Clean Air Act's public health protections.
Washington, D.C. – At a U.S.
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its long-awaited National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter (PM2.5) -- commonly known as soot -- which will lower the annual standard from 12 mcg/m3 to 9 mcg/m3. Soot pollution is shown to increase the risk of asthma, heart attacks, stroke, cancer, and premature death, and nationally, this new standard is expected to prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths, 290,000 lost workdays per year, and result in as much as $43 billion in net health benefits in 2032.
Today, the EPA released updated National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter (PM2.5), taking a positive and long-awaited step toward addressing a dangerous and deadly air pollutant responsible for over 100,000 deaths in the United States every year.
Yesterday, the EPA proposed to move forward with a Trump-era policy that narrows the scope of what the agency can examine when they review air operating permits, reducing the depth and quality of EPA’s review of air permits.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club filed notice today of their intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to ensure that areas in 11 states and two U.S. territories have effective plans for cleaning up sulfur dioxide air pollution.
Pollution from coal-fired power plants across the United States was responsible for at least 460,000 deaths over the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously estimated, new research reveals.
At a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing today, Republican politicians repeated disproven claims about the impact of the Biden administration’s proposed carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel power plants, wrongly alleging the standards would raise costs for consumers and threaten energy reliability.
Environmental and community groups are seeking to join EPA in a lawsuit defending the agency’s action to eliminate unlawful air pollution loopholes from state air operating permitting programs against a challenge from industrial polluters.
On Friday, Sierra Club took a significant step in its ongoing effort to compel the EPA to enforce federal air quality standards set nearly a decade ago under the Obama administration by filing a lawsuit that requires EPA to recognize the failure of many states to submit compliance plans for reducing smog levels in their communities.