PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Clean Air Council rallied in Love Park on Tuesday in an effort to get more public comment on an EPA proposal that would stop regulation of greenhouse gases.
Councilman Jaime Gauthier was among the speakers encouraging several dozen protesters to get involved in the effort to maintain the EPA’s “endangerment finding.” That’s the conclusion, based on scientific research, that greenhouse gases harm people.
The finding provides the basis for federal regulation of emissions, but the EPA now wants to rescind it, saying updated data casts doubt on the conclusion. If it’s rescinded, polluters could emit greenhouse gases without restriction.
Gauthier stressed the importance of public voices. “They may have money but we have people,” she said. “They may have lobbyists but we have love for our city.”
Alex Bomstein, executive director of the Clean Air Council, has been skeptical of the new data and said greenhouse gas harm is evident around us.
“The climate crisis we’re living in looks like people swimming in the Vine St. Expressway after Hurricane Ida. It looks like our eyes burning every summer from the smoke of Canada’s vast northern forests burning down,” he said.
Bomstein wants to get the word out that the window to comment on rescinding the finding has been extended to Sept. 22. He said the agency must review and respond to all substantive concerns, creating a public record that can be used in a court challenge. But he says no one should depend on federal action to fight climate change.
“We have to act on the local level. We have to act on the state level,” Bomstein said. “We have to act everywhere.”
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