Chicago Aldermen Fight President Trump's Order Undoing EPA Regulations
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago Aldermen are vowing to fight President Trump's moves to undo federal environmental regulations from the past two decades.
President Trump's executive order rolling back EPA rules and regulations has drawn direct fire from Aldermen, like Health and Environment Committee Chairman George Cardenas. He said he must speak in "Trump language." WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports from City Hall.
"It's bad," he said. "Real bad. It's just bad policy."
Altgeld Gardens resident Cheryl Johnson, director of the group People for Community Recovery, said environmental regulations have improved the health of poor communities like hers.
"To come to this point, where we are going to lose funding for the opportunity to protect our air and protect our waterways, it's almost like signing our own death certificate," Johnson said.
The EPA has estimated that the Clean Power Act alone would prevent as many as 150,000 asthma attacks a year. Johnson said she has seen asthma cases reduced in her community since coal-fired power plants have closed.
Northside Alderman John Arena said the City Council resolution speaks out against President Trump's order and in support of the work of the EPA and Great Lakes Restoration.
"he is kind of a low information President," Ald. Arena said. "So if he is listening today, I'd like to explain to him that the grass on the golf course that he is spending so much time on, is not created in a factory from petroleum it is actually grown. And it uses clean water, air and sunlight."
Kady McFadden, Deputy Director of the Sierra Club of Illinois, said the President's actions affect health, jobs and the future.
"Trump's sweeping order is the single-biggest attack on climate action in U.S. history, period," McFadden said.
