Sign the petition: Demand the U.S. Senate reject Andrew Wheeler for the EPA

Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has built a career rooted in looking out for the coal industry — not everyday Americans. He spent years lobbying for Murray Energy, the largest coal mining conglomerate in the United States.

It’s no coincidence that they trust Wheeler to enact their dangerous deregulation agenda. Andrew Wheeler:

• Proposed undermining the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), critical protections that limit the amount of mercury and other toxins power plants are allowed to release into the air. These safeguards protect children and families from exposure to mercury, a horribly damaging neurotoxin.
• Struck rules on the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the super-potent climate-changing, ozone-destroying pollutants used in refrigeration, air conditioning, insulation, aerosols, and other products.
• Scaled back a ban on deadly paint strippers containing methylene chloride, putting workers at grave risk from these products.
• Declared an all-out war on clean cars.

The Trump-Wheeler deregulation agenda is a clear assault on our economy, environment, and public health. Wheeler cannot be trusted to lead an agency that is critical to keeping the air we breathe and the water our kids drink safe. On his watch, the EPA will do more harm than good and provide nothing but cover for bad corporate actors and polluters.

Let's send a message to the Trump administration and his allies in the fossil fuel industry: demand the Senate reject Wheeler’s nomination.

Click here to send the following message to U.S. Senate:

(Consider adding a personalized note for more impact.)

The Trump-Wheeler deregulation agenda is a clear assault on our economy, environment, and public health. Wheeler cannot be trusted to lead an agency that is critical to keeping the air we breathe and the water our kids drink safe. On his watch, the EPA will do more harm than good and provide nothing but cover for bad corporate actors and polluters. Vote NO on Andrew Wheeler.

Participating Partner Organizations:

Climate Hawks Vote
Corporate Accountability
CREDO
Daily Kos
League of Conservation Voters
Rootstrikers
SierraRis

Tell the EPA: Don't devalue the human health aspect of the Mercury Rule to gut environmental rules

Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin produced by burning coal. It contaminates the fish we eat and causes brain damage and reduced IQs in infants and small children.

The petition to the EPA reads: "Don't devalue human health to gut rules on mercury or other air pollutants. Regulators must consider all benefits of a rule, including co-benefits, when protecting our health and environment." Add your name:

To make it easier to gut environmental regulations, the Trump administration has a new plan: It wants to change how the government values human health. By changing the cost-benefit analysis of air pollution rules to ignore the lives the rules will save, Trump's EPA will open the door to repealing them – and make it far harder to pass environmental protections in the future. Devaluing human health is a grotesque strategy with predictable consequences: More people will get sick or die. The EPA started by proposing to gut an important rule on mercury, but the consequences of changing its calculations could fundamentally change how we can protect ourselves and the environment. Tell Trump's EPA: Do not devalue human health in order to weaken rules on mercury and other air pollutants. Click here to sign the petition. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin produced by burning coal. It contaminates the fish we eat and causes brain damage and reduced IQs in infants and small children.1 A 2011 Obama administration rule forced power plants to substantially reduce mercury emissions.2 Now Trump wants to reverse the rule by deciding that environmental regulators must ignore "co-benefits," all of the extra benefits from an environmental rule beyond its narrow stated purpose.3 Because the harms of mercury are hard to calculate, the Obama administration justified the rule partly by considering all the lives and money saved because of the rule's other benefits – reducing air particulates and helping the climate by closing down coal plants. Trump wants to discount these benefits completely. The Trump administration's apathy to human health should not be surprising. Andrew Wheeler, the new head of Trump's EPA, is a former coal lobbyist for one of the nation's largest coal companies, Murray Energy. Wheeler's former boss, CEO Robert Murray, was a major donor to Trump’s inauguration fund, and he personally requested the rollback of the mercury rule.4 Gutting the mercury rule is a gift to the coal industry, and it comes at the expense of children's brains. We must loudly oppose this proposal and any other attempt at changing the cost-benefit analysis of rules that discount their full impact on human health. Tell Trump's EPA: Do not devalue human health in order to weaken rules on mercury and other air pollutants. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/mercury?t=5&akid=30378%2E3130208%2EpNgTIB - Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Brad Plumer, "How to tally up the benefits from EPA’s mercury rule," The Washington Post, Dec. 22, 2011. Ibid. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis, "In rollback of mercury rule, Trump could revamp how government values human health," The Washington Post, Oct. 1, 2018. Coral Davenport, "Trump Administration Prepares a Major Weakening of Mercury Emissions Rules," The New York Times, Sept. 30, 2018.