President Nixon signing the first national environmental law founding the US EPA, with Bill Ruckelshaus, its first Administrator, looking on. (Source: National Archives)
He made no mention of the very reasons why the EPA was established in 1970 and that has made it so vital for over 50 years.
The EPA was created in recognition of the need to reduce the air and water pollution that were endangering public health and to address the wastes that were contaminating our land. Over time the EPA added to its priorities combatting toxic contaminants, removing chlorofluorocarbons that were making a hole in our ozone layer, and tackling the greenhouse gases causing global warming. So even as our population has soared from 203 million at the time of the first Earth Day in 1970 to more than 340 million today, we have made steady progress in reducing these threats.
NOT ONLY THAT. EPA’s clean air regulations alone have saved billions of dollars – many times more than the costs of regulations – in premature deaths prevented, reduced emergency hospitalizations, and avoided asthma and other respiratory and coronary illnesses. It has cut both workdays and school days lost. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that each $1 spent on air pollution regulation brought the U.S. economy at least $10 in benefits.
It was a Republican Administration under President Nixon that saw the need to safeguard our environment and create the EPA. It is one today that now proposes to tear it apart.
Lee Zeldin doesn’t think it is his job to address the rising cancer and asthma rates from the poisonous fumes of millions of diesel trucks and untested industrial chemicals, or the wildfires, tornadoes, droughts and collapsing Arctic glaciers resulting from a warming planet.
However, at Energy Vision, we see hope for making continuing environmental progress through the action of states, municipalities, the private sector and committed citizen activists. And we are focusing on arming these government, business and civic leaders with the information they need to pick up the reins of leadership.
Last year we equipped them, via our report Meeting the Methane Challenge, with the strategies they can use to slash U.S. methane emissions 30% by 2030 – as our country (and 157 nations around the world) committed to do after international climate scientists concluded that this was the essential first step if the world was to avoid the catastrophic impacts of runaway climate change. Significant interest has been expressed in our analysis, including by the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of 24 governors linked to the United Nations Foundation.
This month, we released another report that can help states and municipalities both slash methane but also reduce the blanket of toxic air pollution spewed out from the tailpipes of heavy-duty diesel trucks – especially the over 2.4 million of these trucks that went into operation before 2013 and are still on our roadways. This new report, A Path to a Healthier America: Ditching Old Diesel Trucks, clarifies the dangers they pose to the health of millions of Americans – especially the young and the elderly and the economic savings of replacing them.
The Foreword to this report lays out the threats:
“Diesel exhaust is a major source of urban air pollution. It is dirtier and more toxic than gasoline exhaust. It is comprised of soot, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, several oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, formaldehyde and benzopyrene. One of its most toxic components is 1,3-butadiene, a powerful human carcinogen. Diesel exhaust is classified by the World Health Organization as “carcinogenic to humans.” Diesel exhaust also contains potent respiratory irritants, and it is a known cause of asthma, cardiovascular disease and stroke.”
— Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, Director, Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, Boston College
Most important, this report lays out the options for replacing these old trucks with new models that are affordable, commercially available, much cleaner, and that are powered by non-fossil fuels. Our Page One story lays out the findings of that research, authored by Energy Vision’s Research and Publications Director, Michael Lerner.
These findings reflect the exciting technology innovations humans can deliver to our society when armed with the facts and inspired to pursue a sustainable future.
So while it is tragic to see the destructive directions being taken at our EPA at this moment in history, Americans who care must support those in the agency who are still committed to its mission and take action on the state and local levels. With vision and energy, we will prevail.
