It should be obvious: protecting people from one health risk should not come at the expense of another huge health risk. Yet, that is exactly the argument that the US Environmental Protection Agency is currently making. They've announced they will essentially allow massive polluters to do their worst all through this pandemic, with no repercussions.
Sign now to demand the EPA does its job and continues to police air and water pollution violations!
It's so obvious to everyone in the environmental rights world that this is just an excuse. The EPA, headed by a Trump croney, has already been stripped bare during his reign. Now, they are taking advantage of a global health emergency to risk all of our health even more.
The rules that will be relaxed (retroactively to March 13th, 2020) are the same ones that are intended to keep big manufacturers from polluting the air and water to levels that cause dire human and environmental destruction. Without these rules, manufacturers have no reason to limit their emissions or stop dumping toxic waste into our drinking water. That should scare us all.
Not to mention the neighborhoods and areas that will suffer the most from this lack of environmental protection are those with large Black and brown populations. This is particularly horrendous when you look at how BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) are already disproportionately suffering from COVID-19 deaths, in part because of this fact, known as environmental racism.
The middle of one global health crisis is not the time to abandon protections put in place to try to keep us safe from another. Please sign on to demand the EPA does not walk back their air and water pollution policing during this pandemic. We need our agencies working to protect us, not protect the bottom line of evil polluters.