The Environmental Protection Agency has seen a lot of changes under the current Trump Administration. In late July, the agency proposed rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding.
This finding shows that the agency found that the current and projected concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.
Ashley Wilmes is the executive director of the Kentucky Resources Council and an environmental attorney. She said these changes are already impacting people in Kentucky.
In March, she said, the EPA canceled a grant to the Louisville Air Pollution Control District for an air toxins monitoring study in West Louisville.
“The study was part of a larger community effort with the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, West Jefferson Community Task Force, and Park Duvalle Community Health Centers to better understand and make public information about environmental impacts on health in West Louisville,” she said.
Wilmes said this is just one example of how she says the EPA is shifting away from its mission. She said actions like this can hurt Kentuckians.
“This is just a local example of watching the EPA shift away from its mission to protect human health by keeping updated scientific findings out of the equation that could have helped clean up the air. With all these actions, EPA's credibility and objectivity is certainly at risk,” she said.
WEKU reached out to the agency, and an official responded in an email statement saying, “We are proposing that EPA lacks authority under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act to regulate vehicle and engine greenhouse gas emissions based on global climate change concerns.”
The agency also said, “EPA is bound by the laws established by Congress, including under the Clean Air Act. Congress never explicitly gave EPA authority to impose greenhouse gas regulations for cars and trucks.”
You can hear more with Kentucky Resources Council executive director Ashley Wilmes later this week on Eastern Standard on WEKU.
