Pruitt Weakens the New Source Review Program, Endangering Communities with Toxic Air Pollution

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced today that he is severely weakening the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review (NSR) program for air pollution, which will make it possible for industrial polluters to avoid installing state-of-the-art, cost-effective pollution controls. The Clean Air Act, and EPA’s NSR regulations, require major sources of air pollution, like dirty coal burning power plants, to add modern pollution controls when they undertake projects that produce an increase in air pollution. Pruitt’s announcement today opens a major loophole in those requirements by allowing polluting facilities to claim that planned decreases in pollution will offset any immediate increase in pollution, while abandoning the procedures by which EPA has, in the past, ensured that such claims are accurate and enforceable. The practical result will be an increase in air pollution, with especially harmful impacts in the communities that surround major industrial facilities.

In response, Mary Anne Hitt, Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, released the following statement:

“This attack on clean air programs is a travesty that will endanger the lives of thousands of families suffering from soot, smog, and other forms of air pollution.  This decision will result in more asthma attacks, more heart attacks, and more heartbreaking deaths for the sake of the profit margins of fossil fuel millionaires and billionaires.

“Because of Pruitt’s decision today, thousands upon thousands of families -- disproportionately in low income communities and communities of color -- will have to breathe dirty air that will destroy their health and put their very lives at risk. The New Source Review protections now under attack have served as a critical health safeguard for decades, requiring companies use modern pollution controls when they make major upgrades to their facilities. By trying to eliminate this common sense safeguard, Pruitt is doing the bidding of fossil fuel polluters and putting the safety of millions of Americans at risk. The Sierra Club and our allies will oppose this power grab every step of the way, in the courts and in the streets. ”