States with poor climate policy ‘overlap’ with those seeking to limit rights, Kamala Harris says
Washington, DC—In an impassioned address on Tuesday night, Senator Kamala Harris criticized the Trump administration for its actions undermining the Environmental Protection Agency and its efforts to address climate change and the right to clean air and water.
“The Trump administration has left the door open for the repeal of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, rolled back protections and expanded rollbacks for our water protection, and rolled back the climate protections and renewable energy sources that are essential to our energy independence,” Harris told a standing-room-only crowd at the U.S. Capitol.
“In my view, this is an attempt to roll back progressive environmental protections for our nation,” said Sen. Harris, replacing President Donald J. Trump in the 2020 presidential race. “It is an attempt to rollback protections from the Affordable Care Act, from the Clean Air Act, from the Clean Water Act, from the Endangered Species Act, and it is an attempt to do that for the climate.”
“We cannot, we will not, and we must not stand passively by and allow this administration to roll back any protection for our climate, for our health, for our homes, or for our communities.”
In a lengthy address, Harris also condemned the Trump administration for failing to make it clear in his first 100 days in office that its rollbacks would result in the repeal of landmark environmental laws and environmental protections.
“To try to hide from the truth that we are in a climate crisis is wrong,” Harris said. “Our planet is under attack, it’s already been attacked, it’s our job to prevent it from being attacked further.”
The nation’s public health, our communities, and our environment are “vulnerable populations,” Harris said. She cited the Trump administration’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act, calling the administration “the single most harmful piece of legislation to the health and well-being of communities and families of color.”
The administration, she said, continues to “withhold critical climate science and information from the public—because it doesn’t fit the administration’s narrative.” She said there is no scientific reason to believe