June 30, 2022

Duckworth Statement on Supreme Court’s Disastrous Decision to Strip EPA’s Authority to Help Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Tackle Climate Crisis

 

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today issued the following statement in reaction to the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in West Virginia v. EPA, stripping the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s authority to help regulate greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to our climate crisis: 

“Our climate crisis is a real and existential threat that we need to tackle immediately—and today, the Supreme Court severely limited our ability to do so by stripping away one of the EPA’s most critical responsibilities: protecting our environment and public health from greenhouse gas emissions. While I'm outraged that our nation’s highest court put business interests above the future of our families, our health and our planet, I will never stop working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass laws that help make our air and water safer for all of us, especially communities who already bear the brunt of environmental injustice and climate change.”

Duckworth has been committed to helping ensure more Americans have safer air and water in their communities. In March, several of her key environmental priorities became law in the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Omnibus appropriations package, including cleaning up hazardous waste sites and tackling contaminated properties by investing in the EPA’s Superfund program and brownfield grants and addressing the disproportionate impacts of pollution on communities of color and low-income communities by expanding funding for environmental justice programs at EPA.

Last year, President Biden signed the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal into law that included Duckworth’s entire Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (DWWIA), which would help rebuild our nation’s crumbling and dangerous water infrastructure. As a result of her leadership, Illinois—which contains the most known lead service lines of any state in the nation—will be able to dramatically accelerate projects to remove dangerous lead pipes and protect countless children against permanent, irreversible brain damage from drinking lead-contaminated water.

Last year, the Senator also introduced the Environmental Justice for All Act, comprehensive legislation to achieve health equity and climate justice for all, particularly the cumulative impacts on underserved communities and communities of color that have long been disproportionately harmed by environmental injustices and toxic pollutants. 

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