Ranking Member Lofgren Reacts to EPA Offering Companies Permission to Pollute

Washington, DC – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun a campaign that will allow polluting companies to apply for exemptions of regulations in the Clean Air Act. On the EPA website, where companies can use an EPA-provided template to apply to bypass clean air regulations, it states that exemptions will be decided by the president.

"The Trump EPA will stop at nothing to put polluters over people," said Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (CA-18). "The idea that some obscure, rarely-used provision of the Clean Air Act empowers EPA to grant sweeping exemptions to polluting companies because they send an email is preposterous. It's clearly illegal - no doubt there. But it's also bad business. I would warn companies to think twice before applying for permission to pollute. The EPA is effectively creating a Polluter's Club, and that's not a club any company should want to join. I'll be watching very carefully to see who ends up on this list - and when word gets out, these companies will have a lot of explaining to do."