Media Contact: Emily Pomilio, 480.286.0401, emily.pomilio@sierraclub.org
College Park, MD - Former coal lobbyist and acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler released an unlawfully weak carbon pollution policy today that would gut the Clean Power Plan’s life-saving standards and do next to nothing to fight the climate crisis.
As the first-ever standards to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants, the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, would have reduced carbon emissions from the electricity sector by 32 percent, prevented 90,000 asthma attacks per year, and avoided 3,200 premature deaths per year by 2030. All told, the EPA estimated that the Clean Power Plan would have provided up to $45 billion in climate and public health benefits a year, while also helping drive the rapid expansion of affordable clean energy industries like solar, wind, and energy efficiency.
Maryland, with over 3,000 miles of coastline is one of the states most vulnerable to dangerous climate disruption. The state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will help ensure continued pollution reduction from coal-fired power plants through 2030; however, Maryland is not on a path yet to meet its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act law, which requires a 40 percent reduction in climate-disrupting pollution below 2006 levels by 2030, and will need further pollution reduction from coal-fired power plants to meet that goal.
In response, David Smedick, Campaign and Policy Director at the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter, released the following statement:
“The proposed rollback of life-saving clean air and climate safeguards is unacceptable and exposes Wheeler’s EPA as a puppet of the very coal executives who used to sign his paychecks and want to pollute with impunity. States like Maryland need to step up their game and provide bold leadership that protects families and vulnerable communities. In the face of Trump and Wheeler’s polluter-friendly EPA, Maryland needs a concrete plan to transition away from coal-fired power plants that also ensures our workers and communities that traditionally rely on coal are protected and prioritized in the clean energy economy.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.