Gutting of Clean Air Act will cost us in lives, more

By Paul Roberts / For The Herald

President Trump has repeatedly labelled climate change a “hoax” and a “scam.” His administration has recently taken two significant actions in its war on climate science, both undermining the nation’s Clean Air Act.

In August, the Trump Environmental Protection Agency proposed the repeal of the agency’s 2009 endangerment finding that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health, providing the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said: “We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age.” Added Energy Secretary Chris Wright: “Climate alarmism has reduced freedom, prosperity, and national security.”

This month EPA plans to stop accounting for the health benefits from curbing two of the most deadly forms of air pollution: fine particulate matter and ozone. The New York Times reports: “The change could make it easier to repeal limits on these pollutants from coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, steel mills and other industrial facilities. EPA would no longer take health effects into account in the cost-benefit analysis necessary for clean-air regulations.”

These actions by EPA remove the value of human life from the equation.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/roberts-gutting-of-clean-air-act-will-cost-us-in-lives-more/