The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Jake Thompson
jthompson@nrdc.org, 301-602-3627

Elizabeth Heyd
eheyd@nrdc.org, 202-813-8315

EPA Leaves Unsafe Health Standard for Soot Emissions in Place

The Trump Environmental Protection Agency today issued a final rule for soot pollution that leaves federal limits untouched, passing on the opportunity to save thousands of lives from pollution that harms the lungs and makes it harder to survive Covid-19.

John Walke, Clean Air Director at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), made the following comment:

WASHINGTON

The Trump Environmental Protection Agency today issued a final rule for soot pollution that leaves federal limits untouched, passing on the opportunity to save thousands of lives from pollution that harms the lungs and makes it harder to survive Covid-19.

John Walke, Clean Air Director at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), made the following comment:

"In its waning days, the Trump administration is still letting polluters off scot free and leaving the rest of us to keep breathing the industry's deadly pollution--even in the midst of a respiratory pandemic. This administration could have strengthened the limits on soot to protect our lungs and give people at the highest risk of dying from Covid-19 a better chance at fighting off this virus. But it chose not to--leaving the health of tens of millions of Americans at risk.

"Today's reckless decision can and should be swiftly undone by the incoming administration. Fortunately, the incoming administration has signaled it will make restoring the EPA's mission to protect people over polluters a top priority. It's time polluters stopped making us sick."

NRDC works to safeguard the earth--its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. We combine the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of some 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.

(212) 727-2700