Clean Power Plan changes will harm public health, says American Lung Association
American Lung Association National President and CEO Harold P. Wimmer issued this statement responding to the announcement by the EPA that the agency is seeking comments on options for replacing the Clean Power Plan:
"First, EPA proposed to revoke the Clean Power Plan, and now they have signaled their intention to replace the Plan with far weaker standards. The Clean Power Plan would have prevented up to 90,000 childhood asthma attacks and 4,500 premature deaths every year once fully implemented. Instead of implementing these lifesaving standards, EPA is moving toward a dangerous proposal previously rejected: an 'inside the fenceline' approach that only limits emissions at power plants themselves. Research has shown that doing so would not only be woefully inadequate to limit carbon pollution from power plants, but could result in increases of other deadly power plant emissions that cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes and premature deaths.