State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

233 Mayors Object to EPA's Proposal to Scrap Clean Power Plan

Route FiftY: More than 200 mayors from around the U.S. voiced opposition Tuesday to the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed repeal of Obama-era rules meant to curb air pollution from power plants.

EPA issued a rule-making notice in October saying it wanted to scrap the policy, known as the Clean Power Plan. The mayors, 233 of them from 46 states and territories, say this move would put their residents at risk and undermine efforts to address climate change.

"Our communities have experienced harmful impacts of climate change such as dirtier air, increased heat-related illnesses and deaths, damaged and disappearing coastlines, longer droughts and other strains on water quantity and quality, and increasingly frequent and severe storms and wildfires," the mayors told EPA chief Scott Pruitt in a letter, submitted as a formal comment on the agency's proposal.

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