Americans will “pay dearly” as a result of the Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) decision to rollback environmental regulations, “with their health and with their wallets”, a US senator has commented.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), was commenting following the announcement by EPA administrator Lee Zeldin that the agency planned to roll back most major rules that limit pollution and protect clean air and water.
The EPA also plans to rewrite a 2009 scientific finding that confirms that greenhouse gases endanger public health, a cornerstone of the Obama-era’s Clean Air Act.
‘Clearly lied’
“Today is the day Trump’s Big Oil megadonors paid for. EPA’s attacks today on clean air, clean water, and affordable energy are done for the planet’s biggest polluters,” Whitehouse commented following the EPA’s announcement.
“Administrator Zeldin clearly lied when he told us that he would respect the science and listen to the experts, when decades of science—including from Exxon’s own scientists—have established the truth about climate change and the dangers of the carbon pollution Zeldin seeks to greenlight.”
The next steps
Critics of the EPA’s move have suggested that several of the rollback measures are unlikely to gain judicial approval, with one climate expert telling the AP news agency that “in the face of overwhelming science, it’s impossible to think that the EPA could develop a contradictory finding that would stand up in court”.
Senator Whitehouse also pledged to do what it takes to combat the EPA’s position, commenting, “This sell-out has a long road ahead of it through the Administrative Procedures Act, which we will fight every step of the way.”
Elsewhere, senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate EPW Committee, praised the EPA’s stance, saying “Today’s action begins the process of rolling back the most harmful, anti-energy regulations of the past four years that have impaired our electric reliability.
“Moving forward, we must continue to invest in baseload power generation through resources like coal and natural gas, while maintaining our all-the-above energy approach and important priorities like nuclear and carbon capture technology.” Read more here and here.
