Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Trump’s Economic Agenda Would 'Make America Dirty Again'

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump released an economic agenda Thursday that would eliminate safeguards for America's air, land, waters and food supply; open public lands to damaging oil and gas development; and worsen the impacts of climate change.

Trump went on the attack against clean air, safe water and food, and a livable future for our kids. His plan to make America dirty again reads like a polluter wish list. It would set us back a generation, taking a toll we can't afford on our air, climate, waters and even the meals we feed to our families.

Here's a reality check:

• The clean water rule provides needed safeguards to protect the sources of clean drinking water for one in every three Americans.

• Food safety standards help fight food contamination that threatens peoples' lives.

• Cutting smog pollution will save us billions of dollars each year by reducing the number of Americans forced out of work and into the emergency rooms with asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments that smog makes worse.

• Cleaning up the dirty power plants that account for 40 percent of our carbon footprint is essential to stave off the worse impacts of rising seas, widening deserts, soaring temperatures, raging wildfires and floods and storms.

Rhea Suh is the president of NRDC Action Fund.