April 10, 2018
By Vien Truong, Michelle Romero, Green For All –
Alexa and Jacob live thousands of miles apart but share this one thing in common: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has failed them both.
Twelve-year-old Alexa lives in Galveston, Texas. She loves the beach. But she can’t go to the one near her house. It’s so polluted you can’t build sand castles without the risk of exposure to toxic chemicals. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, 13-year-old Jacob suffers from severe asthma. Asthma attacks are routine. When he feels one coming – he says it’s as if someone is squeezing his lungs – he tells his mom and they rush to the hospital.
These two young Latino-Americans are the true faces of Scott Pruitt’s failure at the EPA.
The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is “to protect human health and the environment.” Disgraced EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt tried his best to undermine this vital mission by choosing to slash critical health protections and let corporate polluters off the hook. Now that Pruitt’s been booted, we need an EPA administrator dedicated to undoing his toxic agenda and restoring the agency to its core mission. Progress is possible and necessary – but another corporate crony or climate skeptic will not get us there.
Scott Pruitt is gone, but the fight is just beginning. We need an EPA administrator who puts our health and environment first, period. Any alternative is unacceptable.
