MAINE BEACON (Maine People's Alliance) • June 29, 2020
Moves by the Trump administration this month to weaken environmental regulations could have disproportionate impacts on Maine, a state downwind of high-pollution areas. The White House has directed federal agencies to expedite the environmental review of infrastructure projects required under the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act and other federal laws, and the EPA said it would tweak the cost-benefit analysis it uses to determine emissions limits under the Clean Air Act. Maine depends more than other states on federal standards for air pollution because prevailing west-to-east winds push pollutants from the rest of the East Coast and Midwest into the state. Even if Maine is able to control emissions within its borders, pollution from as far away as Chicago still affects the state’s air quality and leads to more instances of asthma and other health conditions.