Environmental Justice Caucus Co-chairs Slam Trump Administration For Eliminating EPA’s Ability To Protect Public Health From Climate Change

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA)—co-chairs of the U.S. Senate Environmental Justice Caucus—issued the following statement ahead of Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin rescinding the 2009 endangerment finding today, undoing a landmark determination that requires the EPA to address greenhouse gas emissions and pollution because of the threat that climate change poses to public health and welfare. By rescinding the endangerment finding, the Administration will effectively declaw the EPA’s ability to protect public health and will eliminate the vehicle greenhouse gas pollution standards, giving big businesses a green light to pollute our air and devastate environmental justice communities.

“Donald Trump is once again sacrificing our future to protect polluters’ profit margins. The endangerment finding is the key legal foundation that directs the government to act on climate change to protect the health of Americans—and annihilating it will make it even more difficult for the federal government to enact commonsense policies to protect the environment and our public health. Environmental justice communities, which already face much higher rates of illness and shorter lifespans from exposure to heavy pollution, will be especially devastated. This disastrous decision reverses decades of progress and ignores decades of legal and scientific precedent, and its negative impacts won’t just be felt immediately, but for generations to come as well. It’s yet another Trump-created disaster for American families, all to line his billionaire donors’ pocketbooks, as Americans pay the price.”

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As co-chairs of the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus, Duckworth, Booker and Markey have long pushed to strengthen and defend environmental justice efforts across the country. Last September, the three Senators joined the entire Senate Democratic caucus in opposing EPA’s plans to reverse the endangerment finding. Last month, Duckworth sought to block $125 million in Republican cuts to lead service line replacement projects by redirecting a portion of Trump’s $2 billion U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) slush fund. Last year, the three Senators condemned Republicans’ cuts to environmental justice, and Duckworth and Booker condemned the Trump Administration for shutting down all of EPA’s environmental justice offices and slashing over 30 EPA regulations that have helped protect our nation’s public health and the environment for decades.

Duckworth, Booker and Markey—along with U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE)—last year urged EPA Administrator Zeldin to reopen the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR), which Duckworth and Booker led the charge to create. Duckworth, Booker and Markey also helped introduce legislation that would permanently codify the Office of Environmental Justice within the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) in response to Attorney General Bondi’s order eliminating all environmental justice efforts at the DOJ.

For years, Duckworth and Booker have led the charge pushing for their A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice For All Act—the most comprehensive environmental justice legislation in history—which would help achieve health equity and climate justice for all, particularly in underserved communities and communities of color that have long been disproportionately harmed by environmental injustices and toxic pollutants.

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