EPA Declares Pollution Harmless When Regulation Costs Money

A coalition of 21 states and several cities filed suit Thursday to stop President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency from delivering the long-promised American freedom to inhale whatever power companies find cheapest to exhale. Led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the coalition asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reverse the agency’s repeal of greenhouse-gas limits for coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants. The plaintiffs contend that removing pollution safeguards could worsen heat, storms, flooding, wildfires and respiratory illness, repeating the familiar anti-business grievance that citizens should survive the products they purchase.

The EPA said the rollback would save industry more than $300 billion, establishing that carbon dioxide becomes harmless when preventing it would inconvenience shareholders. Officials explained that emissions posing an unacceptable threat to human health can be converted into ordinary air through cost-benefit analysis, particularly when the benefits involve breathing and the costs appear on a corporate balance sheet. “We have the cleanest smoke, absolutely beautiful smoke, and these Democrat states want to take it away from your lungs,” Trump said. “They want foreign smoke coming in, probably from China, when we can make tremendous American smoke right here, with American workers and American coal.”

James called the repeal a betrayal of American families, apparently overlooking the administration’s plan to help those families build resilience through asthma treatments, property damage and prolonged negotiations with insurance companies. California Attorney General Rob Bonta also joined the challenge, accusing the administration of placing fossil-fuel profits above public health. Supporters rejected the allegation as elitist, noting that profits are measured every quarter while chronic illness may take decades to develop and therefore lacks the urgency of an earnings call. If successful, the lawsuit could restore federal emissions standards and again impose the radical obligation that power companies consider people living downwind. Until then, pollution remains scientifically safe whenever cleaning it up would reduce revenue.

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