Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee Chairman Paul Tonko (D-NY) criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement today that it is pursuing a rollback of Obama-era coal ash rules, put in place in 2015 to protect Americans from coal ash - the toxic byproduct of burning coal:
“Another week, another effort by the Trump Administration to roll back critical public health protections. By proposing to revoke rules that protect the millions of Americans who live around coal ash waste ponds across the country, the Administration is once again doing the bidding of corporate polluters. Coal ash is toxic and potentially deadly, with known risks of causing birth defects, cancer and other health problems. Rules for keeping it out of our air and water exist for good reason, but the Trump EPA would rather prop up the failing coal industry than do its duty to protect Americans’ health.
“Allowing coal ash to be dumped into our rivers and communities’ water supplies benefits no one but the coal industry, and does so at the expense of everyone else. Once again it falls to Congress to hold this Administration accountable for its brazenly irresponsible, anti-science, anti-public health agenda. Once again we must step up to protect Americans’ health where the Trump EPA will not."
