In response to the release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new draft Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, Evergreen Action Chief of Staff Lena Moffittreleased the following statement: 

“Everyone deserves to breathe clean air, but right now, too many Americans are burdened with deadly pollution and smog from neighboring states. Updating the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule is a critical opportunity to drive down the dangerous emissions that are poisoning Americans and fueling the climate crisis. Air pollution from the power sector causes tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of illnesses every year. This deadly toll is disproportionately carried by communities of color, which breathe more polluted air than their white counterparts. 

“We applaud EPA Administrator Michael Regan for today’s important step to address interstate pollution. Moreover, we look forward to further action from the EPA to confront pollution in the power sector and deliver on President Biden’s commitments to advance environmental justice. This common-sense standard will prevent 1000 premature deaths per year and more than a million asthma cases by closing loopholes and encouraging power plants and other polluting sources to use control technologies already in use today.”

In 6 Ways President Biden Can Use Executive Action to Take on the Climate Crisis, Evergreen Action called for the EPA to pursue a coordinated multi-pollutant strategy to tackle pollution in the power sector. The report argued that this strategy must begin with enforcing and updating existing rules that protect Americans from poisonous air pollution, including updating the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.

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