TRAVERSE CITY — Michigan environmental groups are warning that a recent decision from the Trump administration could worsen man-made climate change and public health for decades to come.
The rollback of the ‘endangerment finding’ could undo some of the U.S.’s longstanding environmental policies —that includes everything from car emissions to air pollution, and climate experts say they’re concerned.
“This legal premise enables regulators to protect us,” said Abby Clark, Michigan Government Affairs Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Clark and other experts say that recent decisions from the Environmental Protection Agency will worsen the impacts of climate change and have a negative impact on our natural resources.
The Trump administration describes the rollback as the “single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history” and claims it will save consumers billions of dollars.
But Michigan climate experts are warning that the decision will almost certainly lead to more pollution in the air we breathe, long-term economic damage and generational impacts on human health.
“Is this the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history? That’s probably true. The savings? I have a lot of questions about how they did their math,” Clark said. “Air pollution harms all of us. There are costs to that — it shortens your life, there are increased health care costs.”
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized its plan last week to roll back the Obama-era policy decision that is essentially the foundation of U.S. federal climate policy.
“This is not a good scenario,” Clark said. “This is not a good outcome for really anyone, unless you are a fossil fuel industry.”
The regulations at risk of being overturned include things like power plant emissions and standards for gas cars around the country.
“Those pollutants come out at the same time, from tailpipes, from power plants,” Clark said. “So the pollution that causes asthma — that increases the probability of lung problems, of heart attacks, of strokes — is also being emitted at the same time as these climate pollutants, and it comes from all kinds of industries.”
Other environmental experts say that the decision opens the door to more pollution in the coming decades.
“It’s just essentially giving polluters the thumbs up to go ahead and do as they please,” said Samantha Pickering, Public and Environmental Health Policy Manager for the MI Environmental Council.
Environmental groups also warned about the economic impact of worsening public health, taking issue with the E.P.A.’s claim that consumers would see short-term savings from the decision.
“That’s going to just end up being a lot of long term economic impacts — so more extreme weather, events like flooding, events like the wind we see with thunderstorms," Pickering said. “Stuff like that ends up damaging infrastructure, like energy grids and the roads, like we saw with the ice storm”