MATSUI, SEEC COLLEAGUES SLAM EPA EMBRACE OF EXTREME CLIMATE DENIALISM
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), including Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui (CA-07), Mike Quigley (IL-05), and Paul Tonko (NY-20) and Vice Chairs Reps. Don Beyer (VA-08), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Sean Casten (IL-06), Mike Levin (CA-49), and Chellie Pingree (ME-01), released the following statement in response to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin’s formal decision to repeal the landmark Endangerment Finding and gut life-saving pollution standards for motor vehicles. Previously, SEEC sent a letter in February condemning Administrator Zeldin’s reported recommendation to strike down EPA’s Endangerment Finding.
“EPA Administrator Zeldin’s decision today to overturn the landmark Endangerment Finding represents a disturbing new level of extreme science denial by the very agency entrusted to protect the American public from pollution. The scientific consensus is overwhelming and has been well-established for decades—greenhouse gas pollution from cars, power plants, and factories is causing climate change and climate change is endangering our public health and welfare. This is not theoretical. We can see it with our very own eyes. Whether it’s the catastrophic flash floods in Texas, wildfires that demolished Californian communities, or the scorching heat dome currently enveloping half of the U.S., it is no longer a question whether climate change endangers our lives. Climate change is already wreaking havoc across America. By ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus, contradicting the clear statutory language in the Clean Air Act, and overriding repeated Supreme Court rulings, EPA has revealed today just how far it will go to be every polluter’s ally.
“This is no empty threat. EPA is already using this absurd climate denialism to justify repealing life-saving vehicle pollution standards that have delivered clean air to communities across America. These standards would have saved thousands of lives and thousands of dollars per vehicle in fuel, maintenance, and repair costs, while paving the way for a globally competitive American vehicle market. As international markets rapidly transition away from polluting fossil fuels to cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable technologies, the Trump Administration is choosing to deprive America of the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century.
“With each Republican rollback of common-sense pollution protections, our children will pay the price when they do not have a safe and healthy future. Is it not enough that we’ve lost at least 500 Americans in the past year to extreme weather events; that today 288 million people in the United States are currently living under an extreme weather alert; or that climate-fueled disasters in just the past year have already cost the American economy $182 billion dollars?
“The real question is: how many more American lives do we have to lose before Republicans stand up to their big polluter friends and acknowledge that climate change is a real and deadly problem for the American people?”
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