FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 28, 2026
Berkeley, CA — In the wake of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to stop accounting for the economic value of health benefits, including lives saved, when setting air pollution standards, Denaya Shorter, Senior Director of the U.S. & Canada Region at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), issued the following statement:
“As a global network of environmental justice organizations, GAIA rejects the idea that human life should be reduced to an economic calculation in the first place. But if economic frameworks are being used, no polluting facility, plastics plant, incinerator, or corporate balance sheet should ever be valued above people’s lives or their right to a clean environment.
By effectively valuing human life at zero, this administration is prioritizing industry profits over public health, dismantling long-standing safeguards, and rewriting the rules to shield polluters from accountability. This decision exacerbates inequity and disproportionately impacts the most marginalized members of our society, often low-income and communities of color, and it will cost the US more than just dollars — it will cost lives.
We have seen this industry-driven “cost-first” narrative before. It has been used to weaken environmental protections and justify toxic plastics, waste incineration, and environmental racism across the globe. When industry costs are put above human lives, the result is not balanced policymaking but a system that treats frontline communities as expendable and disregards decades of established science.
At GAIA, we remain bold, determined, and unwavering in our mission to strengthen grassroots movements toward a just, zero waste world rooted in respect for ecological limits and community rights, and where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution. Our voices and resolve are stronger than their power.”
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The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) is a member-based, environmental justice network working at the intersection of waste, climate, and justice. In the United States and Canada, GAIA supports grassroots organizations that advance zero waste solutions, challenge the plastics and petrochemical industries, reduce methane emissions, and promote safe, sustainable practices for electric vehicle battery production and recycling.
Press contacts:
María Guillén, Communications & Network Development Manager