Inslee: Trump is co-conspirator in premature death of Washingtonians
Aug 22, 2018, 12:16 PM | Updated: 6:21 pm
A group of coal miners are seen before President Trump takes the stage at a rally by President Trump Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018, at the Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, W.Va. (Craig Hudson/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP)
(Craig Hudson/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP)
Washington state will sue the Trump administration if it rolls back the Obama era Clean Power Plan.
“Even under the rosiest assumptions by his own agencies, would conclude that his would cause the premature death of 1,400 people a year, every year,” Washington Governor Jay Inslee said Wednesday. “That’s the population of Kittitas, Washington, suffering premature death every year.”
“I think it is fair to say that Donald Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in the premature death of 1,400 people every year if this misbegotten plan went into place,” he said. “We find this unacceptable.”
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The Obama-era plan was created to scale back greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Trump’s plan would allow states to set their own coal plant regulations, while removing incentives to move to renewable energy sources or natural gas. The new, proposed plan is called the Affordable Clean Energy Rule (ACE).
In a press conference, Inslee said President Trump’s proposal is a deadly coal plan that will expose Washingtonians to deadly air, and that the president has sold out children’s health to the coal industry.
“Yesterday, President Donald Trump gave us a deadly coal plan,” Inslee said. “A deadly coal plan that will expose our children and our families to deadly air because of coal pollution … Washingtonians deserve clean air to breathe. Our children deserve the ability to go out in the summer and have clean air to breathe.”
“This alleged plan does nothing but blow smoke while we eat it,” he said. “If you want to know why this is a terrible idea by Donald Trump, take a look out your window, because we area choking on dirty air and he would give us dirtier air to breathe.”
Attorney General Counsel Bill Sherman says they will sue in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals if the administration moves forward with the roll back. Multiple states are expected to join the lawsuit.
“The court found that greenhouse gases are an air pollutant without a doubt, and can be, and must be regulated by the Clean Air Act,” Sherman said, explaining the legal history of the regulations. “It also said the EPA can’t just regulate greenhouse gases just with policy judgments that have nothing to do with the facts and nothing to do with the science. The proposal we are talking about today disregards those facts and that science.”
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