Whitehouse Blasts Trump’s “Free Pass” to Planet’s Most Toxic Polluters

By rolling back the power plant greenhouse gas and air toxics standards, EPA is giving polluters free rein to poison our air with neurotoxins and cancer-causing emissions

Washington, D.C.—Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), issued the following statement after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced rollbacks of the power plant greenhouse gas and air toxics standards, giving free rein to some of the largest sources of carbon and toxic air pollution:

“The Trump Administration’s subservience to its fossil fuel megadonors is on full display.  By gutting these clean air standards, the EPA is giving a free pass to the nation’s dirtiest power plants and most toxic polluters. 

“As our clean air is polluted by the fossil fuel industry, it is families who will bear the costs.  Pollutants like mercury and greenhouse gases are harmful, a settled scientific fact for decades, and the evidence has only gotten stronger.  Administrator Zeldin is handing our children a future of disease and climate upheaval.  Climate upheaval is already disturbing insurance and mortgage markets, and it’s getting worse fast.  

“The corruption in this Administration is endless, and I will fight with everything I have to hold it accountable for the harms it is unleashing on our country.”