Melissa Williams, melissa.williams@sierraclub.org
KNOXVILLE, TENN.— Today, the U.S. Senate voted to approve Donald Trump’s nomination of Scott Pruitt as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In response, Scott Banbury, Conservation Coordinator for the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, released the following statement:
“We are deeply disappointed in Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, who were elected to represent our communities’ best interests, for failing to protect Tennessee families, in favor of corporate greed.
“The appointment of climate change-denying, fossil fuel ally Scott Pruitt is a complete environmental and public health disaster. Based on his record of putting polluter profits before people, Pruitt will undoubtedly be the most dangerous EPA Administrator in history.
“The EPA will now be led by a man who sued it for doing its job 14 times, and who even went so far as to question whether mercury pollution, a known toxin, is dangerous to public health. Under his leadership, what will become of critical protections like the cross-state air pollution rule, which allows Tennessee to work with our neighbor states to control the air pollution that led to ozone non-attainment for Knoxville and Memphis in the past? What of the New Source Performance Standards, which forced TVA to install pollution scrubbers at coal power plants across Tennessee? And what of the haze rule, which has cleaned up the air quality in Smoky Mountains National Park, making our air quality cleaner and healthier in a major tourist destination?
“Pruitt may very well rescind public health standards that are directly beneficial for Tennessee, putting the health of our communities and our children at increased risk.
“Tennesseans will never forget the catastrophic Kingston coal ash spill, which showed us firsthand that we need watchdog agencies, like the EPA, to step up and protect our communities, not stooges for polluters and the fossil fuel industry.
“Sierra Club and its 2.7 million members and supporters worldwide and nearly 35,000 across Tennessee will continue to mobilize and resist attacks on clean air and clean water every step of the way.”
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