Environmental groups from across Michigan are supporting legislation to require state regulators to consider existing pollution levels in a community when reviewing new industrial permits.
Currently, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) only considers the potential emissions from new development.
The Protecting Overburdened Communities Act (SB 479 and HB 4742) would require regulators to consider the combined health impacts, especially in communities impacted by significant existing pollution sources.
“Communities on the front lines that suffer from the combined effects of heavy industry, diesel exhaust from trucks and trains and other sources of pollution,” said Kathryn Savoie with the Clear the Air Coalition.
State Representative Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit) said he developed asthma growing up in a community with polluted air.
He said only considering one source of pollution when reviewing an air permit does not make sense.
“We do not breathe one source of pollution at a time,” McKinney said. “And we experience the health harms of all the combined pollution we breathe in.”
The proposed legislation is based on similar laws passed in other states, including New Jersey.
The new state legislation comes as the Trump administration moves to roll back rules on greenhouse gases and exempt oil refineries, chemical manufacturers and others from clean air regulations.
President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed revoking a scientific finding that's long been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rescinds a 2009 declaration that determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health.
The “endangerment finding” is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the proposed rule change on a podcast ahead of an official announcement set for Tuesday in Indiana. Three former EPA leaders say Zeldin's proposal would endanger the lives of millions of Americans.
