Amy Dominguez, amy.dominguez@sierraclub.org
Phoenix, Ariz. – The Trump administration is seeking to strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of one of its most powerful tools for combating climate change by repealing the Endangerment Finding for power plants and permanently stripping the EPA of its authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants under the Clean Air Act.
Combined with its February repeal of the Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles, the administration is doing all it can to paralyze the EPA from legally acting on the two largest sources of carbon pollution in the country and erroneously alleging that carbon pollution does not endanger public health.
The proposal comes as Arizona experiences both increasing impacts from climate change – extreme heat, intensive drought, more extensive fires and flooding – and a major expansion in fossil gas buildout, leaving customers with higher utility bills and worsening climate impacts. The deliberate destabilization of the EPA is an obvious attempt to bolster the profits of a volatile, and expensive industry despite the well-documented evidence that clean energy is now cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than fossil fuels.
“No proposal, repeal, or rollback could alter the undeniable truth that climate change is harming our health and that we know how to address it. Renewable energy is cleaner, more affordable, and more accessible than fossil fuels,” said Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter Director, Sandy Bahr. “While the administration is set on turning an agency meant to protect communities into a puppet for polluters, Arizonans will see higher bills and more public health harms. Now more than ever, people must be prioritized over corporate profit.”
“While wildfires rage, floods devastate communities, and families struggle to afford skyrocketing electricity bills and insurance premiums, the Trump administration is handing the fossil fuel industry a license to keep polluting,’ said Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender. “This is full-throated climate denial while the climate crisis happens in real time and a shocking betrayal of the American public. The Sierra Club will fight back against this reckless and dangerous proposal with everything we have in the courts, in Congress, and in communities across the country.”
###
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.