Friend — this story is still developing. Andrew Wheeler, Trump's EPA administrator, quietly submitted a major change in EPA policy earlier this month.

He's redefined "ambient air" in such a way that power plants, factories, and other facilities can exclude the air around their property from air quality monitoring so long as the public isn't physically allowed on the premises.

This is big — we need to turn this ruling around. Wheeler has skipped the normal public comment period process — and the rule isn't binding, yet.

To pull this off, we need to be raising hell. We're organizing in a major way to hold the EPA to its mission, but we need your help.

The end of the year is just a couple weeks away, and it's a major fundraising deadline here at LCV. What we can raise by the end of the year tells us just how big we can go with campaigns like this — and right now, we're still $55,000 away from our funding goal.

We're asking every LCV member to pitch in before the 12/31 deadline — and until then, a donor is triple matching every contribution. Please, donate what you can — even if it's just $5 »

Here are the details: In the Clean Air Act, "ambient air" is considered to be the outdoor air that the public has access to.

Basically, the stuff we breathe. It's the EPA's job to ensure that air isn't polluted.

Well, under the EPA's new policy, they're excluding larger and larger areas from that "ambient air" definition. Essentially, they've added a loophole that allows factories and power plants to emit more pollution while the Trump administration looks the other way.

These types of policy shifts should require public comment before they take effect. Andrew Wheeler, Trump's EPA head, quietly announced this during the impeachment fight — without opening any public comment period.

We can't let this go down without a fight. This is a policy that can be reversed, but timing is critical — we need your help, and we need to move quickly.

A donor is triple matching every contribution before the end of the year. Please, make an emergency gift of just $5 or more to the League of Conservation Voters before the deadline »

Thank you for everything that you do for the environment, friend.

Adam, Brooke, Casey, ChiQuita, Elizabeth, Eric, Jim, Julie, Levi, Mike, Rachel, Sammi, and Vinnie
LCV Rapid Response Team