The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced its intent to overturn and undo decades of bipartisan consensus on critical pollution safeguards that have resulted in cleaner air and water and significant health improvements. The announcements cover 31 health protections, including standards on mercury, soot, and traffic pollution as well as the reconsideration of a decade-old, evidence-based conclusion that carbon dioxide, methane, and four other climate-warming pollutants endanger human health and welfare.
In response to these announcements, EEN President & CEO Rev. Dr. Jessica Moerman issued the following statement:
Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! (Deuteronomy 30:19, NLT)
"As evangelical Christians, we take seriously our biblical mandates to defend the life of all God’s children, both born and unborn, and protect God’s creation. The EPA has a similar mission to protect human health and the environment. In over five decades of work, Republican and Democratic administrations have faithfully advanced this mission, delivering cleaner air and water resulting in millions of American lives saved.
"While we have not always agreed on everything, EEN has worked productively with the EPA on our shared commitment to defend the health of our children. This includes advancing critical pollution safeguards that have reduced levels of mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin that harms the brain development of unborn children and lowers IQs, by over 90%; cut levels of microscopic particulate matter (PM2.5) and soot from traffic and power plant emissions that cause asthma, dementia, and poor birth outcomes like lower birth weights, pre-term birth, and stillbirth; lowered carbon pollution that is fueling more extreme weather and making our communities less safe, as recently seen in Western North Carolina and Los Angeles; and cut wasteful methane emissions and associated harmful gases that medical research links to brain and spinal cord birth defects in our babies and cancer in adults.
"Although we have made incredible gains due to the Clean Air Act and the vital work of the EPA, the American Lung Association finds that nearly 40% of Americans, representing 131.2 million people, still live in areas with unhealthy air. As pro-life Christians, we will not rest until all God’s children are free from the burden of pollution and can reach their full God-given potential.
"While current EPA leaders are doing great work responding to the needs of Western North Carolina, Los Angeles, and East Palestine, their plans to eliminate these successful and cost-effective pollution safeguards amount to a “pollution first” agenda that will result in the waste of taxpayer dollars on lengthy litigation and will ultimately fail to pass an evidence-based process. Constructive discussions on evidence-based reforms should be welcomed by all corners. However, in its zeal to reform, the EPA’s announced plan does not live up to its mission and ignores crucial moral mandates, putting the health and lives of our children at risk. We encourage the EPA to keep its focus on furthering mission-critical work to protect human health and the environment instead of undoing successes that have made America healthier.”
