In fact, the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, the sweeping electricity plant regulation the EPA repealed earlier this year, created a fund to match state grants for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in low-income communities.

Alford’s assertion bucks with the EPA’s own researchers. Earlier this year, the agency released a landmark study that found people living below the poverty line are exposed to 1.35 times more particulate matter than those living above it. People of color are on average exposed to 1.2 times more particulate matter than the general population. Black people, in particular, are exposed to 1.54 times more pollution.

The NAACP released a report in last year that found black people on average breathe air that is 38 percent more polluted than that breathed in by white people, and they are 75 percent more likely to live in neighborhoods abutting industrial sites.

“Today’s decision is both foolish and unnecessary,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said. “It is feasible to capture harmful emissions from power plants with technology.”

In a fiery statement, a coalition of 15 public health groups, including the American Lung Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Medical Association, called the proposal “a major threat to the health of all Americans, particularly those most vulnerable.”

“Power plant pollution and climate change endangers the health of every American, but certain groups are more at risk – including children, older adults, pregnant women, low-income communities and communities of color,” the statement said. “This latest attempt from the administration to give industry a license to pollute is irresponsible and illogical from both a health and economic perspective.”