In response to the New York Times report that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will no longer consider the health benefits when setting air pollution rules, Evergreen Action Executive Director Lena Moffitt released the following statement:

“Air pollution rules exist to protect human health and the environment. That is the entire mission of the EPA. By deciding that only the costs to industry matter—while refusing to consider lives saved or asthma attacks prevented—Trump’s EPA is effectively arguing there is no reason to set air pollution standards at all. The only winners here are corporate polluters; everyone else loses. This decision will make people sicker, make communities less safe, do nothing to lower skyrocketing utility bills, and lead to more preventable deaths. Frontline communities, already bearing the heaviest health burdens from pollution, will once again pay the highest price for corporate greed.

“This is all part of Trump’s broader plan to be a president for his ultra-wealthy donors and allies, not the American people. After agreeing to gut environmental protections in exchange for a billion-dollar campaign donation from Big Oil CEOs, Trump has twisted the EPA’s mission so completely that it has become an exercise in the absurd. Make no mistake: this move will face steep hurdles in court. But in the meantime, more Americans will die, the climate crisis will accelerate, and families will be left with higher bills. America will be the land of dirtier air and fewer protections as extreme weather grows more dangerous—all so a handful of executives Trump likes can get even richer.”

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