Air Pollution Has Spiked. Is Trump to Blame?

Levels of fine particulate matter have increased in the last two years, with deadly results, while enforcement actions have decreased.

In terms of public health, one of the worst air pollutants is fine particulate matter. From 2009 to 2016, average levels of these particulates in the ambient air in the U.S. plummeted by 24.2 percent. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that from 2016 to 2018, average levels jumped by 5.5 percent.

As a result of that increase, 4,900 Americans died prematurely in 2017, and 9,700 died prematurely in 2018, according to the government’s own estimates of the likely effects of exposure to fine particulate matter.

In short, the air got a lot cleaner during the years when Barack Obama was president (preventing tens of thousands of premature deaths), and has become a lot dirtier under President Donald Trump. 1 But instead of scoring political points or assigning blame, let’s try to understand what is happening, with the help of new research from economists Karen Clay and Nicholas Muller of Carnegie Mellon University.

Reductions in air pollution are among the spectacular success stories in American government. Since 2000, there have been significant decreases in fine particulate matter, technically referred to as PM 2.5, and the progress occurred under President George W. Bush as well as Obama — a 39 percent decline in the…

Click Here To Read The Full Article Air Pollution Has Spiked. Is Trump to Blame?