Contact: Mollie Michel, [email protected], (267) 981-1648
Washington, DC – Today, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler has refused to strengthen the current national standards for deadly particulate pollution—despite robust scientific evidence showing that the current standards are not adequately protecting Americans from asthma, heart attacks, stroke, premature death and other health problems.
In response, Dominique Browning, Co-founder and Senior Director of Moms Clean Air Force, released the following statement:
“While America staggers under the burden of a lethal respiratory pandemic, Andrew Wheeler and the Trump administration continue to ignore science, protect polluters, and undermine life-saving pollution protections,” said Browning.
“Particulate pollution is a known killer, even at levels below the current standards. These invisible particles are so tiny that they can slip directly from our lungs into our bloodstreams, causing serious health problems. In the past few years, the evidence for this has gotten even more convincing. But EPA’s Andrew Wheeler doesn’t seem to care about the evidence. His campaign to ignore science is making us sick—literally.
“The Trump administration met with the oil industry and other polluting stakeholders about this proposal—but cancelled its meeting with Moms Clean Air Force, showing a profound disregard for our more than one million members. We were cut out of the process. This shows us exactly how little Trump’s EPA values the concerns of moms and dads across the country.
“Today’s refusal to protect Americans from deadly particulate pollution is especially galling because it comes in the wake of new research showing that exposure to particulate pollution increases the risk of dying from coronavirus. This literally couldn’t come at a worse moment.
“This proposal is not an isolated assault on our health,” Browning said. “It is one of the significant ways that fossil fuel lobbyist Andrew Wheeler is weakening health protections, using the Covid-19 pandemic as cover. In addition to proposing to flatline standards for particulate pollution, Trump’s EPA is:
- Gutting Clean Car Standards, adding harmful pollution to the air while making cars more expensive to drive;
- Loosening compliance and enforcement of pollution standards, giving industry the freedom to pollute during the coronavirus pandemic;
- Moving to censor the types of scientific research that EPA can consider when setting pollution standards; and
- Gutting protections from toxic mercury emissions.
“Moms are outraged at how little Trump’s EPA, and Administrator Wheeler, care about our health—and how much they care about the profits of polluters. Moms are calling on Congress to say: Wheeler must go.”