February 7, 2024

As The Washington Post explains, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule lowers the limits of particles, including soot. “When fully implemented in 2032, the stricter limit could prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays per year, according to the agency,” The Post said. “Scientific studies have shown that reducing soot pollution would especially benefit poor and minority communities, which are disproportionately located near industrial facilities.”

Like clockwork, business groups are arguing that saving lives should take a back seat to financial interests. “Business groups immediately objected, saying the new regulation could raise costs and hurt manufacturing jobs across the country,” The New York Times reported, and “are expected to mount a legal challenge to the rule.” That’s despite the fact that The Post pointed out that the business groups do not dispute the huge health benefits of the new rule.

2024 candidate Trump promises to undo many of Biden’s environmental and economic policies, The Post noted. During Trump's White House tenure, career scientists at the EPA reported that deaths would fall by about 27 percent, or 12,150 people a year, if the Biden EPA standard were to be adopted, according to The Times. “After the publication of that report, numerous industries, including oil and coal companies, automakers and chemical manufacturers, urged the Trump administration to disregard the findings, and it declined to make any changes,” The Times said.

When it comes to American lives vs. his fat-cat donors, we already know which side Trump is on.

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