Thousands Urge EPA to Close Unlawful Polluter Loopholes

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, environmental justice and public health advocates from Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas will deliver over 7,000 public comments to EPA urging the agency to eliminate all unlawful loopholes from federal clean air rules.

EPA allows industrial facilities throughout the country to ignore normal health-based permit limits and release deadly air pollution any time a facility starts-up, shuts-downs, or experiences a malfunction. During these SSM events, industrial polluters sometimes release more harmful air pollution during a single pollution spike than they’re legally allowed in an entire year, and often without consequences. 

Representatives from the United Congregations of Metro East Saint Louis, Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter, and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s) will also meet with members of Congress to encourage them to eliminate unlawful SSM loopholes.

“These loopholes let big polluters spew huge amounts of harmful pollution into the air without any incentive to prevent the problem and without consequences–even when spikes occur over and over again,” Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said. “EPA Administrator Michael Regan must use the full power of his position to swiftly close all unlawful loopholes and ensure the Clean Air Act does its job, because every person–regardless of race, zip code, or income–deserves clean air.”

“Under EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s leadership, we’ve started to address air pollution released during startup, shutdown, and malfunction events in Texas,” Co-Director of t.e.j.a.s Ana Parras said. “But communities along the Houston Ship Channel and across Texas know firsthand there is virtually no accountability for facilities that dump huge amounts of deadly pollution into the air we breathe during these events, and we still have a long way to go before everyone in our community has clean air to breathe. It’s time for real and lasting change, and we hope Administrator Regan will join us and thousands of other supporters to make it happen.”

“Today, I preach in the same church my father built, and I’m proud to advocate for East St. Louis and communities all over the country,” Pastor Norma Patterson, President of Gamaliel of Illinois and Iowa and board member of United Congregation of Metro East said. “Small communities can often be overlooked, and my goal is to keep the neighborhoods I grew up in at the forefront of my work. My community and others like mine are consistently harmed by unlawful air pollution loopholes that prioritize big polluters over people, and I'm proud to be part of a group calling on EPA Administrator Regan to do what’s right and act quickly to remove these dangerous free passes to pollute.”

“The American Lung Association continues to give the air quality in many New Jersey counties a failing grade, and communities across the state are suffering from respiratory diseases and other health impacts because of dangerously high levels of air pollution,” Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter Chair of Environmental and Social Justice Renee Pollard said. “These communities are asking to breathe air that won’t make them sick, and we cannot continue to ignore their pleas. Enough is enough–EPA must close all SSM loopholes now.”