The federal government has plans to roll back an Environmental Protection Agency policy that could affect numerous regulations. Central New York environmental and civic officials worry that impacts could be felt locally if the move goes through and conservation and health protections are lost.
The Endangerment Finding legally recognizes greenhouse gases as air pollutants posing dangers to public health. The ruling, adopted in 2009, is the legal underpinning for restrictions on tailpipe emissions, the smokestacks of power plants burning fossil fuels, and regulations for clean air and water to limit industrial pollutants.
We spoke with Central-Northern New York Chair of the Sierra Club Rhea Jezer, who said losing that authority would undermine progress toward new kinds of energy and climate resilience.
“Renewable energy will be decimated,” Jezer said. “All the incentives we’re getting to put our solar panels up, all the incentives we’re getting to get electric cars, that’ll be gone.”
Jezer, who runs Energy 21, a forum on renewable power, added the effects would extend far beyond energy policy. She worries that without federal regulation, public health in cities like Syracuse will worsen.
“The asthma rate, for instance, the city of Syracuse, it's appalling,” she said “If all this is put in place the way the administration wants to, we are going to have more disease. We're going to have more changes in cold and warm, less snow.”
Since 2009, the Endangerment Finding has served as the basis for federal efforts to help eliminate carbon emissions that threaten human health and the environment. The Trump administration argues the science behind the endangerment finding is outdated–and no longer supports have the E-P-A limit emissions from cars and power plants.
Syracuse City Auditor Alexander Marion said the EPA’s mission to protect communities is essential, decrying changes that would weaking it.
“The EPA's job is to keep us safe,” he said. “It is to ensure that children have clean drinking water, and our workers can go outside and have better air quality, it is their job to ensure that our communities are safe to exist in going forward.”
Still, Marion urged local residents are not powerless. He believes communities can push back through civic engagement and advocacy.
“The hope I have is in the people in Syracuse and communities across this country to step up, do the right thing, push their federal government, use the levers of democracy, including the levers in the voting machine, to ensure that we are enacting the policies that we need to safeguard our communities for the future.”
Marion added that higher greenhouse gas levels and resultant effects become a direct problem for the city
“When we are not taking the steps we need to mitigate the damage of climate change, that will cost us money, whether that’s worker’s compensation, infrastructure,” he said, “We are already outfitting our schools with better air condition units because our buildings are old and they are getting hot.”
Both Jezer and Marion say maintaining the Endangerment Finding is critical is critical to protecting not only Central New York’s air, water, and climate, but ensuring the whole country remains a safe and healthy place to live.
A public comment period on the proposed rollback ended last month, with EPA and the administration expected to decide soon.
