FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2022
Contacts: Dana Johnson, dana@weact.org, 1-917-885-3314 and Anastasia Gordon, anastasia@weact.org, 1-646-341-2588
WASHINGTON, DC – Today the Environmental Protection Agency released a proposal to update the Cross State Air Pollution Rule. Dana Johnson, senior director of strategy and federal policy and Anastasia Gordon, energy and transportation policy manager, with WE ACT for Environmental Justice, responded to the announcement:
“Our communities contend with the adverse health effects of our cumulative exposure to pollution from a variety of sources, including what is generated from industries outside of our state lines.
It’s been nearly two years since the Trump-era Environmental Protection Agency was ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reconsider the State of New York request that it enforce the Good Neighbor Provisions of the Clean Air Act in order to protect us from dangerous nitrous oxides (NOx) exposure from the combustion of fossil fuels and industrial activities in upwind states including Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. With this proposed update to the Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), we are pleased to see an effort to contain source point pollution by reducing NOx emissions with a more stringent cap and the full-time use of catalytic converters.
Finally, while we oppose market mechanisms like the cap-and-trade program that makes up the CSAPR, we must ensure that it prioritizes reducing pollution in the places where people suffer the highest exposure levels, as that is often not the case. We will be reviewing the CSAPR proposed update with an eye for closing the door on continuing pollution hot spots in environmental justice communities; enhancing monitoring and enforcement parameters; and ensuring states get off fossil fuels and transition towards renewable energy.”
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WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan membership-based organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.