Wisconsin Utilities Must Step Up as Trump Administration Finalizes Rollback of Clean Power Plan

MADISON, WI -- In the midst of intense public pressure for action on the climate crisis, Donald Trump and his EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler nevertheless moved backward today by finalizing the Trump Administration's plan to roll back the Clean Power Plan, the first-ever safeguards to curb carbon pollution from existing power plants. Wheeler’s alternative—the Dirty Power Plan—is an illegal and deadly rollback that is nothing more than a giveaway to the coal industry; EPA itself previously admitted this type of policy change could result in up to 1,400 deaths every year due to increased air pollution.

In response Elizabeth Ward of the Wisconsin Sierra Club issued the following statement:

“Instead of standing up for millions of impacted people whose health and well-being are threatened by the climate crisis, President Trump’s Administration is joining hands with callous corporate polluters and telling them they will not get in their way. Now there is even more urgency for utilities in Wisconsin to step up.

“While we’re happy these utilities’s plans indicate they care about preventing climate change, they are missing the mark. They lean on excuses to continue burning dangerous fossil fuels for the next 30 years and beyond. Even after carbon is offset, captured, or mitigated, burning coal is a danger to our environment and health even if you label it “low-carbon” in a pie chart. Pollution from coal plants drives climate change, increases the risk of serious respiratory problems and carries cancer causing toxins into our air and water. The vast majority of the gas burned for power comes from fracking, a process that poisons water, causes earthquakes, and leaks methane, a gas even more damaging to our climate than carbon dioxide. We feel these impacts right here in Wisconsin as frac-sand mining is hurting our communities with increased air pollution. These utility plans not only leave the door open for gas and coal, they actively double down on them.

“The Trump Administration’s Dirty Power Plan is an illegal bailout to the coal industry that will result in the deaths of thousands more people and delay the Federal government’s responsibility to act on climate and support coal communities in the inevitable transition away from coal and fossil fuels. Coal plant communities, like Oak Creek, are suffering from air pollution and increased mercury in their water. Instead of demanding pollution reductions from states or coal corporations, this move gives a handout  to coal billionaires to keep polluting frontline communities with their aging plants. The Dirty Power Plan is trying to take us backwards. If Wisconsin utilities are serious about their commitments they must take the lead to deliver bold, visionary action on climate.”