Congressional Climate Champions at EPA Headquarters to Blast Trump Repeal of Endangerment Finding
Washington, D.C. – Today, members of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) — Congressman Paul Tonko (NY-20) and Congresswoman Nanette Barragán (CA-44) — along with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Senator Edward Markey (MA), rallied at a press conference outside the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters, after the White House announced it would repeal the science-based and legally-affirmed Endangerment Finding tomorrow.
WATCH: The full press conference here.
“The repeal of EPA’s endangerment finding is a giant step backward in our fight to secure a livable planet for future generations,” said SEEC Co-Chair Representative Paul Tonko, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment. “With this action, Donald Trump and his administration have made climate denial the official policy of the United States by once again placing polluter profits ahead of the well-being of American families. While countless Americans suffer from the negative health effects of unchecked corporate pollution and millions more face the extreme weather, wildfires, and droughts they cause, Trump and Lee Zeldin are showing nothing but contempt for their struggles. This policy will only make big polluters richer — and American families will pay the price.”
“Revoking the EPA’s endangerment finding is a reckless attack on science, public health, and settled law,” said SEEC Member Representative Nanette Barragán. “In California, families are already living with the consequences of climate change—record drought, catastrophic wildfires, dangerous air quality, and rising costs. This decision puts polluters ahead of our health and safety and forces EPA to ignore the real and growing harms climate change is inflicting on our communities. Congress must act to protect public health and our climate future.”
“This is corruption, plain and simple. Old fashioned, dirty political corruption. The EPA has been so infiltrated by the corrupt fossil fuel industry that it has turned an agency of government into the weapon of the fossil fuel polluters against their clean energy competition, which is not just cleaner, but safer and less expensive than fossil fuel,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “The Trump administration is out to block and delay clean energy getting onto the grid. And by doing so, they are raising electricity costs for Americans because that clean energy is cheaper than the fossil fuel plants. It is a massive transfer of wealth from electric utility ratepayers to Trump's big fossil fuel donors.”
“By repealing the endangerment finding, the Trump administration is creating a clear and present danger to the American public—because climate denial costs lives. But even if Trump and Zeldin try to put EPA’s science in shackles, the law is clear,” said Senator Edward Markey. “The EPA is still beholden to its mission to protect human health and the environment. Trump’s EPA might try to break the law, but they can’t rewrite it. American families deserve a government that puts their well-being over polluter paychecks. Climate change is real, and denying the danger means we will keep living through it—and dying because of it.”