Letter to the editor: Time for EPA to side with Pennsylvanians, not polluters

For years, Pennsylvania communities have been battered by increasingly severe storms and flash flooding, a stark reminder of climate change that swamps our streets, strains our sewers and threatens our homes.

That is why the Trump EPA’s new proposal to roll back the “Endangerment Finding” is so dangerously shortsighted. Since 2009, this scientific fact — that greenhouse gases harm our health — has been the bedrock of key clean air protections, repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court.

This finding is the essential tool that empowers the EPA to restrict the pollutants driving climate change from transportation and major industries. Weakening it would ignore decades of scientific consensus, putting polluters ahead of the safety of our families, seniors and communities. Even the American Lung Association warns this would be a “dangerous setback for health.”

For our state, repealing this finding means more than just dirty air; it means more destructive flooding that overwhelms our aging infrastructure, more unpredictable storms that damage our farms, crops and equipment, and more financial burden on taxpayers to rebuild what should be protected. These climate impacts threaten the very foundations of our commonwealth, from agriculture and business to public health.

The EPA has a responsibility to protect all Americans from these escalating climate threats. That is why I strongly urge every Pennsylvanian to submit a public comment to the EPA before the Sept. 22 deadline, demanding the agency abandon this dangerous effort to weaken the Endangerment Finding and instead prioritize our health and well-being.

Thomas E. Fink

Camp Hill

The writer is a member of the Camp Hill Borough Council.