New Executive Order “Points Us Backward to an Era of More Pollution and More Disease”

White House officials revealed tonight that President Trump will  sign an executive order Tuesday commanding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin weakening a range of important public heath protections, including taking steps to review and ultimately rescind the Clean Power Plan, America’s first-ever standards to reduce dangerous carbon pollution from large power plants. By finalizing this plan in 2015, the agency stepped in to protect the health of all Americans in a way that also protects consumers.  

Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund, made the following statement:

“Let’s face facts: Rolling back public health protections will cost American lives. Rhetoric about protecting the environment cannot obscure the fact that the President’s executive order launches a process explicitly designed to allow air pollution levels to go up. This will allow premature deaths to go up, heart attacks and asthma attacks to go up, and sick days from work and school to go up. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s own scientific analysis, rescinding the Clean Power Plan – which reduces a range of dangerous air pollutants in addition to carbon – would cause each year up to 3,600 more premature deaths, 1,700 more heart attacks, 90,000 more asthma attacks, and 300,000 more missed work days and school days. 

“This action doesn’t just turn its back on our kids, our seniors, and the most vulnerable among us. It turns its back on the next generation. The President offers no replacement plan to protect our communities and families from the clear and present danger of climate pollution, and move our nation toward a clean energy economy. This executive order points us backward to an era of more pollution and more disease.”