MILESTONE: Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign Prevents 1 Million Asthma Attacks, Saves 60 Thousand Lives

Washington, D.C.- According to new Sierra Club analysis, its Beyond Coal Campaign has helped successfully prevent one million asthma attacks through its work to retire toxic coal plants across the country. The campaign's efforts have also saved over 60,000 lives and prevented nearly 100,000 heart attacks.

Since the campaign's foundation in 2009, two-thirds of coal-fired generators have retired, reducing over six million tons of pollution from the air. Coal plant pollution is linked to increased risk of asthma, respiratory diseases, heart attacks, cancer, and premature death.

In the first months of Donald Trump's presidency, he has already proposed adding new coalplants-which would be the first built in the country in over a decade-and exempted nearly 70 power plants from guardrails that limit toxic emissions.

Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has also begunthe formal process of repealing bedrock laws that protect public health and the environment. The Sierra Club recently released its 'Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard', which calculates how much more pollutants will be emitted if the Trump administration rolls back these crucial guardrails. If these standards are eliminated, coal plants will emit more than triple the amount of carbon dioxide and double the amount of mercury.

"Coal kills. It steals our health. And it robs us of a healthy, livable future. This milestone is a reaffirmation of the critical importance of the single most successful environmental campaign in American history. Because of the Beyond Coal Campaign, parents across the country now have the peace of mind that their children are not breathing polluted air, families are spending less time and money on hospital visits, and our communities can spend more time enjoying the outdoors," said Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous. "But our work is far from over. Donald Trump's reckless fossil fuel agenda threatens to undo our hard-won progress. Make no mistake: his dangerous proposals will cost lives. By removing crucial safeguards and adding more coal and gas to our grid, he is selling out American lives in order to fill the wallets of his corporate polluter cronies. The Sierra Club will continue to fight back against his life-threatening agenda. Clean energy offers us a long-term solution that doesn't compromise our health, protects grid reliability and lowers costs. The path forward is clear: we can and must move beyond coal once and for all."

"The Beyond Coal Campaign's accomplishments are proof that retiring coal saves lives. Thanks to this campaign, hundreds of thousands of families have happier and healthier lives," said former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. "EPA's mission is to protect our environment and our health, and that includes protecting communities from coal pollution. Instead, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are wasting taxpayer dollars to prop up an expensive, dangerous, and dirty industry when we have abundant, cheaper, better, and safer clean energy. There is no such thing as clean coal. Their reckless and deadly efforts betray EPA's mission and betray the American people. It's never been more important that EPA and your elected officials know how important it is that Americans live free from the burden of toxic coal pollution and how removing protections from toxic coal pollution affects you and your community.

The Sierra Club estimates the avoided health impacts from coal-fired generator retirements using data from Clean Air Task Force's 2010 "The Toll From Coal" study, which identified the public health burden from particulate pollution due to each individual coal plant in the country at the time.

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.