Lauren Lantry, lauren.lantry@sierraclub.org
Recently reported by E&E and Nature, the Environmental Protection Agency is zeroing out funding for a network of research centers focused on environmental threats to kids, leaving several ongoing studies about the impacts of pollution on child development in limbo.
The EPA isn’t just ending scientific research, according to the New York Times, it is also manipulating the way it calculates the future health risks of air pollution, to dramatically understate the number of deaths associated with dirty coal plants -- up to 1,400 deaths.
In response Sierra Club Associate Director of Federal And Administrative Advocacy Matthew Gravatt released the following statement:
“As they roll back lifesaving protection after protection to help their corporate polluter allies and friends in the fossil fuel industry, Donald Trump and Andrew Wheeler are manipulating facts and ending children’s health research that proves exactly why these protections are needed. Trump and Wheeler consistently fail to make the grade when it comes to protecting our kid’s health and could clearly learn from the research they are defunding.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, 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.