NJ Sierra Club: EPA Repeals Truck Pollution Rule
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
TRENTON NJ (October 24, 2017)--The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is formally proposing to repeal an Obama-era rule that limits emissions from truck components. The Obama Administration wrote the rule in order to cut climate change-causing emissions from the transportation sector by limiting pollution from trucks. Emissions from diesel exhaust, especially particulates, can not only cause asthma attacks in children but can lead to serious illness and death in people with respiratory problems. There are areas in New Jersey where the levels of particulates can be ten times higher than health standards in large part because of trucks. Reducing truck pollution is important, especially in urban areas.
“The EPA revoking this truck pollution rule is a direct assault on our environment and our lungs. Trucks are one of the biggest sources of air pollution in New Jersey. Many of the same communities near airports, ports, and major highways suffer from air toxins that are a hundred times greater than air toxin standards. New Jersey is a corridor state because of our turnpike and other major highways. Whatever we can do to reduce pollution in those areas is incredibly important. When the Obama Administration made these efforts to reduce truck emissions and increase efficiency, they were working to help the people of New Jersey. Now, the Trump Administration wants to revoke this rule, meaning more air pollution, greenhouse gasses, and sickness for the people of our state,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.“Revoking the truck pollution limits directly puts more people in danger of becoming sick from air pollution.”
The Trump Administration’s EPA has already missed a legal deadline to begin implementing the new ozone pollution standard. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt should have published his initial determinations on which areas of the country exceed the new, stricter standard on ozone, a component of smog that is linked to respiratory illnesses. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt fought the 2015 rule as former Attorney General in Oklahoma. Then, he tried to illegally delay implementation as part of the Trump Administration. However, Sierra Club, who lead the case, 15 states, and other groups already filed a lawsuit when they tried to delay the rule and we won. Since they did not release any information like they were supposed to, we are very concerned given the Trump Administration’s record they will not enforce this law and try to repeal it.
“Instead of doing his job, Scott Pruitt is threatening our health and environment. By missing the deadline to enforce stricter ozone pollution rules, Pruitt is taking the side of corporate polluters over our lungs. Now that the Trump Administration is not moving forward in implementing this rule, we are concerned they won’t enforce the rules either. They are doing this because so many groups including Sierra Club sued them when they tried to delay it the first time. Now they are just looking the other way instead of implementing it. Their next step might be trying to repeal the rule all together,” said Jeff Tittel. “Ozone pollution is so dangerous because when people inhale smog it is like getting a sunburn on your lungs. Smog causes cardiovascular and respiratory harm and threatens people with air toxins. This is particularly harmful to children, the elderly and people with asthma. This leads to more premature death, medical problems, and health costs. Since all of New Jersey is out of compliance and we keep having more and more Bad Ozone Days, our state is even more at risk.”
It is not a surprise that Scott Pruitt missed the deadline because his schedule is packed with meetings with the fossil fuel industry and chemical companies, according to hundreds of pages of his schedule uncovered by open records requests filed by the nonprofit group American Oversight. This includes: A trip to the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, FL for a speech to the National Mining Association; A trip to the Phoenician Golf Resort in Scottsdale, AZ for a speech to the National Association of Manufacturers; Numerous meetings with auto manufacturers seeking to gut vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards; Meetings with a pesticides trade group the day after Pruitt overruled scientists calling for a ban on chlorpyrifos, a chemical known to cause disabilities in children.
“When it comes to air pollution, Scott Pruitt doesn’t want to see it, while he fly’s a private jet supplied by the oil and gas industry and paid for by the taxpayers. This is part of the Trump Administration’s arrogance and abuse of power that is threatening people who are breathing in more toxic pollution. It is not a surprise because Pruitt actually sued the EPA against this rule as well as a dozen others as Oklahoma’s Attorney General. His schedule alone shows he is aligned with the fossil fuel, chemical, and auto industry so he can continue his attack on the environment and roll back environmental protections. Again and again Trump and Pruitt have sided with special interests over the American people. They have even denied the science of climate change making us more at risk to Bad Ozone Days,” said Jeff Tittel. “The more Trump and Pruitt rollback environmental protections, the more we will see climate change impacts and more air pollution.”
These attacks by the Trump Administration add to what we already face from the Christie Administration. The Governor has closed the DEP’s Office of Climate Change, pulled the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and doesn’t believe in the science of climate change. In 2012, the administration backed out of the ground level ozone lawsuit that affected the health of children, people with asthma, elderly, and those with repository illnesses. It not only has significant health impacts, but it is an irritant for people at risk it which can actually cause asthma attacks sending people to the hospitals. It is also linked to premature death through heart attacks or asthma attacks. Areas across the country with high levels of zone have 30% higher rate of death from lung disease. The main sources are from industrial plants and cars. With New Jersey having some of the worst air quality in the nation Governor Christie should be following in the EPA’s footsteps and working to protect our health and our lungs instead of siding with polluters and Big Oil.
“New Jersey’s air already fails and the EPA revoking this rule will only make it worse. The Christie Administration has weakened protections in inspections, allows polluters to write their own rules, failed to move forward on reducing air pollution and climate impacts, privatized air permits, blocked offshore wind, and pulled out of RGGI, all which would make our air better. One of the biggest pollution problems we face in New Jersey is from trucks and buses. This administration has blocked attempts to promote electric vehicles and charging stations and has even cut services and raised fares on transit,” said Jeff Tittel. “We should be reducing emissions by focusing on electric vehicles. Instead, we are making it worse. Our air is unhealthy and revoking this rule on truck pollution is only going to make it worse, leading to more environmental and health problems.”
source NJ SIERRA CLUB