HARRISBURG, Pa. (August 21, 2018) – PennFuture today urges the Environmental Protection Agency to reverse course on its purported replacement for the Clean Power Plan announced by the Trump administration, which would safeguard and prioritize the polluting coal industry over climate and public health.
EPA calls this new proposal the “Affordable Clean Energy” rule, but it’s neither clean nor affordable. Its own analysis says this new plan may increase emissions of harmful air pollutants and carbon pollution from dirty coal plants. Worse yet, the Trump administration is preparing a separate plan to further subsidize the unprofitable coal plants at the expense of citizens across the country. Even if Pennsylvania worked to meet its original Clean Power Plan goals in spite of this rollback, citizens will still breathe excess pollution from upwind states like Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana.
“The EPA’s own report shows rolling back the Clean Power Plan could result in 1,400 additional deaths because of air pollution,” said Rob Altenburg, Director of PennFuture’s Energy Center. “Trump’s plan also means more Pennsylvania children suffering from asthma will miss school, and more parents will miss work to care for them.”
PennFuture urges Congress to reverse this attack on environmental protections and pursue innovative, swift climate solutions, such as Congressman Carlos Curbelo’s market-driving approach to reduce emissions, rather than allowing companies to pollute even more, putting profits over people.
Leave a Reply