Amy Dominguez, amy.dominguez@sierraclub.org
WYOMING - on Monday, May 5, the Sierra Club unveiled a new tool that shows the public health and environmental toll of the Trump Administration’s planned rollbacks of the Environmental Protection Agency’s safeguards against coal pollution.
In Wyoming, if the Regional Haze rule were to be eliminated, the state could see more than 8,000 tons of nitrogen oxide pollution and more than 2,500 tons of sulfur dioxide annually, threatening air quality and visibility in Wyoming communities as well as iconic national parks like Grand Teton.
The Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard provides data on how much pollution would be reduced by five of the EPA’s major guardrails currently under threat by the Trump administration:
- the Good Neighbor Plan
- Regional Haze standards
- Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
- Effluent Limitation Guidelines
- Greenhouse Gas standards
All of the rules, except for the Good Neighbor Plan, apply to pollution sources in Wyoming and are in place to curb emissions of nitrogen oxides, mercury, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, wastewater pollution, and other toxic chemicals from coal plants.
The Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard also includes individual analysis of the five standards for every coal-fired power plant in the U.S., including the Naughton, Jim Bridger, Dave Johnston, Wyodak, and Laramie River Station plants in Wyoming.
According to the Dashboard, if these standards are eliminated, regulations for pollution control will go unenforced, enabling the state’s dirtiest plants to pollute without consequence.
In response, Sierra Club released the following statements:
“Letting corporate polluters off the hook has serious consequences for our communities and landscapes. It threatens public health, worsens air quality, and erases decades of progress. Now more than ever, coal plants must be closely monitored and strictly regulated to protect current and future generations,” said Emma Jones, Energy Organizer for the Sierra Club in Wyoming.
“The Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard demonstrates clearly that with every executive order, Donald Trump is recklessly releasing tons and tons of toxic, deadly chemicals into our air. These EPA safeguards were put in place to shield our communities from toxins that poison children, cause more asthma attacks, more heart attacks, and more premature deaths.
“The American people should be outraged that in the first few months of his presidency, Donald Trump has so callously attacked these lifesaving standards and given Big Coal a free pass to make Americans sicker with no consequence. The Sierra Club will continue to fight these dangerous rollbacks and defend our people from more deadly pollution,” said Laurie Williams, Beyond Coal Campaign Director.
###
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.