Contact: Sasha Tenenbaum, stenenbaum@momscleanairforce.org, (917) 887-0146
Washington, DC – In response to the Trump administration’s sweeping waiver of environmental enforcement during the coronavirus pandemic, Moms Clean Air Force co-founder and senior director Dominique Browning issued the following statement:
“This is the kind of cynical, shameful and dangerous approach we see over and over from Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency. How dare they take advantage of a pandemic to relax pollution rules? This is when we should be tightening up health protections. Moms are furious.
“At a time when America is under assault from the deadly coronavirus, President Trump has looked the other way to tell companies that they will not face enforcement if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws. All they have to do is claim that failure to comply can be tied to the coronavirus pandemic. That the Trump administration would shamelessly exploit the coronavirus crisis to advance its radical goal of dismantling environmental protections is simply outrageous.
“Air pollution reduces our body’s ability to fight infection; pollution from power plants and trucks and cars is also one of the causes of the underlying heart and lung problems that make people more vulnerable to Covid-19. What Trump is doing is making Americans even more vulnerable to disease, at a time when our nation’s health is on the line. Our more than 1 million members are outraged that our public health safety net is being unraveled by an EPA taking advantage of the pandemic.”