The Environmental Protection Agency says pollution has decreased in Connecticut cities over the last 10 years. Advocates say that’s thanks to the same policies the Trump administration wants to roll back.
The EPA looked at pollution from 2007 to 2017. Most cities saw declines. Pollution in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, dropped 90 percent.
The trend, however, wasn’t constant. Pollution in Middletown more than doubled.
Roger Reynolds with the Connecticut Fund for the Environment credits the decreases to limits on gas emissions and coal power plants, which he says the Trump administration wants to roll back, “which would eliminate these protections. And if these policies were successful, if we did this in 10 more years, I think we would find the opposite. I think we’d find the quality of the environment has gone down.”
The head of the New England branch of the EPA says the data show a robust economy and sound environmental policies lead to better public health protections.
