Washington, D.C.– Following the press conference from members of Congress this morning and the petition delivery at the Environmental Protection Agency highlighting the harms of revoking of the endangerment finding, the League of Conservation Voters released the following statement from former EPA Scientist and Vice President of Federal Policy, Matthew Davis:

“President Trump, Administrator Zeldin and the rest of the cabinet are putting our families’ and communities’ health at risk, all to pay back Big Polluters. As today’s National Academy of Sciences report underscores yet again, these evidence-backed protections are crucial to ensuring that people have access to clean air and lowering climate change’s threats to our health and well-being including more dangerous extreme heat, the spread of vector-borne diseases, increased heart disease and respiratory conditions like asthma. Revoking the endangerment finding is Trump turning a blind eye to what is so clearly evident — the suffering and devastating losses of the tens of millions of climate disaster survivors across the country. Removing EPA’s climate pollution limits will increase climate pollution by nearly 3 times the annual emissions in the United States and result in 184,000 premature deaths by 2055. And repealing the endangerment finding is the central underpinning of the Trump administration’s scheme to systematically dismantle the EPA’s ability and obligation to protect us all from carbon pollution.

“Nearly 200 members of Congress, hundreds of thousands of people across the country, thousands of scientists, hundreds of environmental and health groups are sounding the alarm and pushing back on the Trump administration’s attacks on our health and our communities. While the Trump administration is exacerbating the climate crisis and driving up health and energy costs, the vast majority of people understand climate impacts are increasing, want to see continued action to decrease pollution, lower costs and fight climate change and are concerned about the administration’s cuts to programs and agencies. We will be continuing to speak out by submitting comments and pushing elected officials to make sure they are holding the administration accountable for doing polluters’ bidding and shirking its obligation to protect our communities.”

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