Trump administration’s roll back of climate regulations gives ‘polluters a free pass,’ Mass. critics say
In President Trump’s most aggressive move to roll back climate regulations, his administration on Thursday repealed a scientific ruling that has long governed regulations on emissions from vehicles, power plants, factories, and more.
Backlash from local politicians, scientists, and environmentalists came quick with Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell vowing to sue.
Daniel Sosland, president of the Acadia Center, a Boston-based clean energy nonprofit, called it “a very sad day.”
“It’s a setback to public health, it’s a setback to consumers, it’s going to increase costs, it’s going to reduce choices in the marketplace,“ he said in a telephone interview Thursday night. ”It’s going to then also affect the most vulnerable populations the most.”
Sosland added: “They haven’t provided any scientific basis for their decision, what the benefits are.”
The oil and fossil fuel industries stand to benefit the most, Sosland said.
“Following the money here leads to those voices who are promoting fossil fuels, and have been opposed to these reasonable, effective, cost effective approaches to introduce new technologies and reduce this threat to public health,” he said.
More pollution will lead to “tens of thousands of premature deaths,” he said, and the decision will unsettle the American economy and US automakers, and put a drag on innovation in manufacturing across the country.
“Other countries are racing ahead, embracing clean energy technologies, because they’re better for their economies, they’re better for people, they’re better for health, and in the long run, they’re also cheaper,” Sosland said.
“Climate change is here and hurting people,” he said. The evidence is overwhelming from accelerated storm damage, to wild fires, to floods, and human health effects, he said.
“It’s conclusive, and so we are much better off facing the challenge now,” he said. “It’s much cheaper to take steps now to mitigate the damages than it is to wait, and wait, and have things get worse and worse.”
To read the full article from the Boston Globe, click here.