Team,

COVID-19 attacks the lungs. So does air pollution. And when COVID-19 is transmitted to people who've been exposed to elevated levels of air pollution for their entire lives, the results can be especially deadly.

So why did Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and Trump appointee Andrew Wheeler just reject a new air quality standard that could save as many as 12,200 lives each year?

On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and in the midst of this pandemic, now is the time to build pressure on the EPA to adopt stronger air quality standards.

Tell the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up dirty air and save lives by adopting stronger air quality standards. Add your name to the petition now.

Last year, staff scientists at the EPA recommended cutting back annual concentrations of soot -- an especially deadly form of pollution that comes from factories, smokestacks, wood burning, vehicles, and industrial operations.

People of color and families with lower incomes are more likely to live and work in areas where soot pollution is highest and often have limited access to health care, compounding the risk the face when respiratory diseases like COVID-19 reach their communities.

Yet EPA Administrator Wheeler has not only rejected new standards to reduce soot pollution -- he's actually stopped enforcement of existing rules for factories and power plants during this pandemic. And, the White House just rolled back emission standards for vehicles. At least one advocate has called this series of moves "a death sentence to communities at the front lines of pollution."

Earth Day is the perfect time to fight back. The first Earth Day helped build the momentum needed to pass the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and to form the EPA. Fifty years later, we need to show EPA leadership that their work isn't over.

We need to take urgent action to clean up our air, before it's too late. This Earth Day, tell the EPA: "Clean up our dirty air now!" Add your name.

Thanks for taking action,

Team Kim