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For Immediate Release
June, 19 2019, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Andrea McGimsey, Senior Director, Global Warming Solutions, 703-477-4722, amcgimsey@environmentamerica.org
Morgan Folger, Global Warming Solutions Advocate, 203-343-1736, mfolger@environmentamerica.org
Josh Chetwynd, Communications Manager, (w) 303-573-5558 (c) 310-779-1049, josh.chetwynd@publicinterestnetwork.org
Trump Administration's Replacement to Clean Power Plan Sends U.S. in the Wrong Direction on Climate Change
WASHINGTON
The Trump administration today announced its rule to replace the Clean Power Plan, which was put into place in 2015. The Clean Power Plan was on track to cut carbon pollution from the electric power sector by 32 percent by 2030. At a time when even steeper cuts are necessary to avert the worst impacts of climate change, this new replacement plan is expected to slow the power sector's transition to clean, renewable energy and could lead to an increase in emissions from nearly 30 percent of coal plants. This could cause as many as 1,400 additional deaths by 2030 due to the toxic chemicals from these plants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Notably, the new rule gives states the authority to regulate rather than setting a federal cap on power plant emissions that are contributing to the climate crisis.
Andrea McGimsey, Senior Director of Global Warming Solutions at Environment America, released the following statement:
"On behalf of our members in all 50 states, we unequivocally oppose President Trump's Dirty Power Plan. It will intensify carbon pollution from the burning of dangerous fossil fuels and accelerate the warming of the planet, increasing life-threatening changes to our climate. As the Midwest drowns from unrelenting, powerful downpours, wildfire season kicks into high gear in the West, and cities along the Atlantic coast watch sea levels rise outside their doorsteps each day, it is a travesty that the Trump administration is reversing course on clean power and a stable climate.
"Americans understand what's at stake as we all value clean air and a healthy environment. They expect the Environmental Protection Agency and their elected leaders to act in their best interest. As such, there is no way to justify this move.
"Thankfully, governors and state legislatures continue to move forward to transition our electric power to renewable sources like the sun and wind. States like New Mexico and Washington have pledged 100 percent clean energy by 2045, and many more like New Jersey, and New York, are moving in the same direction. These states are tackling the climate challenge head on and taking us into a sustainable and strong future. It's high time for our federal officials to join them."
With Environment America, you protect the places that all of us love and promote core environmental values, such as clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean energy to power our lives. We're a national network of 29 state environmental groups with members and supporters in every state. Together, we focus on timely, targeted action that wins tangible improvements in the quality of our environment and our lives.
(303) 801-0581LATEST NEWS
'Poster Child for...Corporate Greed': Sanders Slams Health Industry CEO's Subpoena Refusal
"It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages."
Sep 04, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday blasted Dr. Ralph de la Torre—the CEO of a bankrupt health services company "who has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and healthcare providers"—for refusing to comply with a bipartisan subpoena compelling him to testify about his company's insolvency.
"Perhaps more than anyone else in America, Dr. de la Torre is the poster child for the type of outrageous corporate greed that is permeating through our for-profit healthcare system," said Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
"Working with private equity vultures, he became obscenely wealthy by loading up hospitals across the country with billions in debt and selling the land underneath these hospitals to real estate executives who charge unsustainably high rent," the senator added. "As a result, Steward Health Care, and the more than 30 hospitals it owns in eight states, were forced to declare bankruptcy with some $9 billion in debt."
Steward is trying to sell all 31 of its hospitals in order to pay down its debt.
As Common Dreamsreported on July 25, the HELP committee, which includes 10 Republicans, voted 20-1 to investigate Steward Health Care's bankruptcy, and 16-4 to subpoena de la Torre.
"I am now working with members of the HELP committee to determine the best path forward," Sanders said on Wednesday. "But let me be clear: We will not accept this postponement. Congress will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America. This committee intends to move forward aggressively to compel Dr. de la Torre to testify to the gross mismanagement of Steward Health Care."
"It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages," Sanders added, referring to the 190-foot megayacht the CEO purchased as Steward hospitals failed to pay their bills.
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)—a HELP committee member—and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also slammed de la Torre on Wednesday, calling his failure to appear before the panel "outrageous."
"De la Torre used hospitals as his personal piggy bank and lived in luxury while gutting Steward hospitals," the senators said. "De la Torre is as cowardly as he is cruel. He owes the public and Congress answers for his appalling greed—and de la Torre must be held in contempt if he fails to appear before the committee."
De la Torre's attorney, Alexander Merton, lashed out against the Senate subpoena Wednesday in a letter
accusing HELP committee members of being "determined to turn the hearing into a pseudo-criminal proceeding in which they use the time, not to gather facts, but to convict Dr. de la Torre in the eyes of public opinion."
The same day the HELP Committee voted to probe Steward and subpoena de la Torre, Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, introduced the Health Over Wealth Act, which would increase the powers of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to block private equity deals in the healthcare industry.
Last month, Markey and Warren expressed concerns over the proposed $245 million sale of Steward Health Care's nationwide physician network to a private equity firm.
"Two Massachusetts hospitals are closing and communities are suffering because of private equity's looting of Steward," said Warren. "Selling Massachusetts doctors to another private equity firm could be a disaster. We can't make the same mistake again. Regulators must scrutinize this deal."
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'It's a Disgrace': Biden Weighs Making Temporary Asylum Limits Harder to Lift
"We already know how devastating the Biden asylum shutdown is and it should be ended immediately rather than expanded," said one campaigner.
Sep 04, 2024
Two months after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order barring migrants who cross the southern border without authorization from receiving asylum, senior administration officials are reportedly considering making the policy—which was meant to be temporary—much harder to lift.
Biden's June directive invoked Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act—previously used by the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, to deny migrants asylum—"when the southern border is overwhelmed."
The policy shuts down asylum requests when the average number of daily migrant encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500. Border entry points may allow migrants to seek asylum when the seven-day average dips below 1,500.
"The move to make the asylum restrictions semi-permanent would effectively rewrite U.S. asylum law."
The changes under consideration would reopen entry only after the seven-day average for migrant encounters remains under 1,500 for 28 days.
"The asylum ban itself is arbitrary and duplicative. It has no relation at all to a person's asylum claims, meaning even a person with an extraordinarily strong claim would be denied for crossing at a time when many others, potentially thousands of miles away, are doing the same," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group, said Wednesday.
"There is no doubt that we need to rethink the current asylum system, which would include giving it an infusion of resources so that people don't have to wait five years for a decision," he continued. "But cutting it off to whole swathes of people for reasons unrelated to their claims isn't a fix."
"The move to make the asylum restrictions semi-permanent would effectively rewrite U.S. asylum law, which since it was created in 1980 has mandated that all people on U.S. soil be permitted to request humanitarian protections, regardless of how they got here," Reichlin-Melnick added.
U.S. officials say Biden's order has resulted in a dramatic decrease in asylum claims.
According toThe New York Times:
Since Mr. Biden's executive order went into effect, the number of arrests at the southern border has dropped precipitously. In June, more than 83,000 arrests were made, then in July the number went down further to just over 56,000 arrests. Arrests in August ticked up to 58,000, according to a homeland security official, but those figures still pale in comparison to the record figures in December when around 250,000 migrants crossed.
Migrant rights advocates condemned the new rules. Less than two weeks after Biden issued the order, a coalition of rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union sued the administration, arguing the policy was illegal and endangered migrant lives.
"We already know how devastating the Biden asylum shutdown is and it should be ended immediately rather than expanded," Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA's director of refugee and migrants rights, said Wednesday on social media. "High numbers of people being denied their human rights is not a sign of success, it's a disgrace."
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'It Doesn't Have to Be This Way,' Says Harris After Georgia School Shooting
"Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of their classroom," said the Democratic presidential nominee.
Sep 04, 2024
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday addressed the fatal mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and addressed the attack that left at least four people dead—two students and two teachers—and injured nine, calling it a "senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies."
"It's just outrageous that every day in our country in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive," Harris said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire that took place shortly after news of the shooting broke. "It doesn't have to be this way."
"This is just one of the things that's at stake in this election," Harris added.
President Joe Biden also spoke about the shooting, demanding that Republicans in Congress "finally say 'enough is enough' and work with Democrats to pass commonsense gun safety legislation."
"We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers," said Biden. "These measures will not bring those who were tragically killed today back, but it will help prevent more tragic gun violence from ripping more families apart."
The Biden-Harris administration has taken some action to prevent gun violence, including closing a loophole that had allowed firearms dealers to sell guns without running background checks on purchasers. Gun violence prevention advocates applauded the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, but denounced Congress for not coming to an agreement on legislation that would require background checks for all gun purchases and ban assault weapons. The legislation banned gun sales to people convicted of domestic violence and funded state "red flag" programs to remove guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has vowed to appoint federal judges who oppose limits on firearm ownership and has called himself "the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House."
Both Harris and Biden expressed concern for schoolchildren across the country who are coming of age in a country where mass shootings make national news several times per year and where lockdown drills are routine at school.
"Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of their classroom," said Harris.
The gun violence prevention group Giffords shared an account from Apalachee High School senior Sergio Caldera, who was in his chemistry class when he heard gunshots and someone pounding on the classroom door.
"They prepare you for these things," Isabella Albes Cardenas, an 11th grade student at Apalachee High School, told The New York Times. "But in the moment, I started crying."
The student-led group Students Demand Action said that "back to school season should not come with the fear of being shot."
"We deserve to go to school and focus on our education, NOT fear for our lives," said the group. "We don't have to live and die like this. WE DEMAND ACTION."
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