Urge Your Representative to Require the EPA to Enforce Environmental Protections

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is no longer going to enforce our nation’s key environmental protections. The policy, announced last Thursday, gives dirty industries an “open license to pollute” until further notice.¹

As our nation works to contain the coronavirus outbreak, the last thing we need is more air pollution compromising people’s health. Congress must get the EPA’s environmental cops back on the beat.

Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=37488 to tell your U.S. representative: Require the EPA to enforce key environmental protections.

The EPA’s suspension of enforcement puts our air, water and health at the mercy of polluters. Refineries, chemical factories, coal plants and more will face no penalties for failing to monitor or report their pollution.

That’s an open invitation for these facilities to release toxic chemicals into our air — well beyond enforceable limits put in place to protect our health. And even when such pollution levels are detected, the EPA could waive penalties if a company claims they were (somehow) caused by the pandemic.²

The oil and gas industry has been clamoring for these kinds of loosened regulations.³ The EPA’s decision to relax enforcement puts our health in danger for the sake of polluting industries — the wrong move for an agency tasked with safeguarding us.

Send a message to your representative to help restore vital environmental regulation.

Cynthia Giles, former head of EPA enforcement, is shocked at the scope of this order. “This is essentially a nationwide waiver of environmental rules,” she said. “It is so far beyond any reasonable response I am just stunned.”⁴

We don’t have to stand for the EPA’s reckless decision to let polluters go unchecked. Congress has the power to undo this disastrous order — so your representatives need to hear from you.

Take urgent action today.

1. Lisa Friedman, “E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters,” The New York Times, March 26, 2020.
   2. Rebecca Beitsch, “EPA suspends enforcement of environmental laws amid coronavirus,” The Hill, March 26, 2020.
   3. Rachel Frazin, “Oil industry group asks Trump administration to lessen regulations amid coronavirus,” The Hill, March 23, 2020.
   4. Lisa Friedman, “E.P.A., Citing Coronavirus, Drastically Relaxes Rules for Polluters,” The New York Times, March 26, 2020.