EPA has abandoned its responsibilities

The recent decision of the Environmental Protection Agency to discard the scientific finding that emissions of greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare is a slap in the face to all Americans who value clean air, clean water and a healthy environment.

It is a painfully discouraging development to the many Americans who have worked to protect the climate and leave a livable world for our children and grandchildren. With this step, the EPA has abandoned its responsibility to protect us from the effects of harmful heat-trapping emissions from sources like cars, trucks, airplanes and power plants. Instead, the Trump administration has once again shown us that the profits of fossil fuel companies are far more important than protecting people from dangerous pollution.

It claims that erasing the endangerment finding and ending regulations of greenhouse gas emissions will lower costs for Americans, partly by making new cars cheaper. However, this line of thinking overlooks the larger and longer-term economic costs of unregulated pollution to our communities.

The science that greenhouse gases harm health and contribute to a warming climate has been well established for years. The EPA's policy change ignores the reality that people all over the country have suffered from dangerous heat waves, wildfires, flooding and unhealthy air which have been made worse by the warming climate. This is a dangerous step backward that risks irreversible harm to the health and well-being of future generations.

The EPA's decision to repeal its own scientific evidence will likely be challenged by environmental groups, but the outcome of such litigation is uncertain. In the meantime, concerned citizens should contact their members of Congress and urge them to support legislation to protect Americans from harmful greenhouse gases and hold polluters accountable.

Sheila Brown

Evanston