From:
david.j.worrell@gmail.com
After basically converting the Environmental Protection Agency into
something more like the Environmental Destruction Agency (or maybe
the Environmental Sales Agency), it's almost hard to keep track of
all the terrible things the Trump administration is doing.
I'm going to list them, courtesy of "the failing New York Times".
To date, the Trump administration has sought to reverse
over 50 environmental rules...
24 rules have been overturned
17 rollbacks are in progress
7 rollbacks are in limbo
5 rules were undone then reinstated by legal challenge
Regulations have often been reversed as a direct response to
petitions from oil, coal and gas companies and industry groups.
Trump is doing practically anything big corporations want,
no matter how bad those things may be for land, water, and air.
Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency,
has met almost daily with industry executives and lobbyists.
(As Oklahoma’s attorney general, Mr. Pruitt sued the agency he now
oversees more than a dozen times to try to block Obama-era rules.)
The E.P.A. was involved in one-third of these policy reversals..
So what are all these rules Trump is hellishly busy destroying?
***
Here's the first HALF:
1. Revoked Obama-era flood standards for federal infrastructure
projects. This Obama-era rule, revoked by Mr. Trump in August,
required that federal agencies protect new infrastructure projects
by building to higher flood standards. Building trade groups and
many Republican lawmakers opposed it as costly and burdensome.
(Sure, we probably won't have bad floods any more, right?)
2. Rejected a proposed ban on a potentially harmful insecticide.
Dow Agrosciences, which sells the insecticide chlorpyrifos,
opposed a risk analysis by the Obama-era E.P.A. that found the
compound posed a risk to fetal brain and nervous system development.
Mr. Pruitt rejected the E.P.A.'s analysis, arguing the chemical
needed further study.
(Yeah, let's use more insecticides that damage kids' brains.)
3. Lifted a freeze on new coal leases on public lands.
Coal companies weren't thrilled about the Obama administration's
three-year freeze pending an environmental review. Mr. Zinke,
the interior secretary, revoked the freeze and review in March.
He appointed members to a new advisory committee on coal royalties
in September.
(Sure, let's open up more coal leases on PUBLIC lands.
The general public is so supportive of more coal usage. Not.)
4. Canceled a requirement for oil and gas companies to report
methane emissions. In March, Republican officials from 11 states
wrote a letter to Mr. Pruitt, saying the rule added costs and
paperwork for oil and gas companies. The next day, Mr. Pruitt
revoked the rule.
(They don't even have to report methane emissions now. Do you
'spose that might create a RISE in methane emissions?)
5. Revoked a rule that prevented coal companies from dumping mining
debris into local streams. The coal industry said the rule was
overly burdensome, calling it part of a “war on coal.” In February, Congress passed a bill revoking the rule, which Mr. Trump signed
into law.
(Yeah, let coal companies dump mining debris into our streams.)
6. Approved the Keystone XL pipeline.
Republicans, along with oil, gas and steel industry groups,
opposed Mr. Obama's decision to block the pipeline, arguing that
the project would create jobs and support North American energy
independence. After the pipeline company reapplied for a permit,
the Trump administration approved it.
(After the construction is over, this pipeline will create less
than 50 new permanent jobs, according to Factcheck.org.)
7. Approved the Dakota Access pipeline.
Republicans criticized Mr. Obama for delaying construction after
protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Mr. Trump ordered
an expedited review of the pipeline, and the Army approved it.
Crude oil began flowing on June 1, but a federal judge later
ordered a new environmental review.
[Oops. Stopped again by a federal judge. Hey, I know, why don't
you just replace that judge with yet another unqualified stooge?]
8. Prohibited funding third-party projects through federal lawsuit
settlements, which could include environmental programs.
Companies settling lawsuits with the federal government have
sometimes paid for third-party projects, like when Volkswagen put
$2.7 billion toward pollution-fighting programs after its emissions
cheating scandal. The Justice Department has now prohibited such
payments, which some conservatives have called “slush funds.”
[We don't want any money going to no goddamn environmental programs,
not no way no how.]
9. Repealed a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic
and Arctic oceans. Lobbyists for the oil industry were opposed
to Mr. Obama's use of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to
permanently ban offshore drilling along parts of the Atlantic coast
and much of the ocean around Alaska. Mr. Trump repealed the policy
in an April executive order and instructed his interior secretary,
Mr. Zinke, to review the locations made available for offshore drilling.
[Full steam ahead on offshore drilling. Who cares what happens
to the earth as a whole. This is all about more money for US.]
10. Proposed the use of seismic air guns for gas and oil exploration
in the Atlantic. Following a executive order in April known as the America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, the Trump administration
began an application process to allow five oil and gas companies to
survey the Atlantic using seismic air guns, which fire loud blasts
that can harm whales, fish and turtles. The Obama administration had
previously denied such permits.
[C'mon, they're whales and turtles. This is more money and oil for US!]
11. Revoked a 2016 order protecting the northern Bering Sea region
in Alaska. Mr. Trump revoked Mr. Obama’s 2016 order protecting the
Bering Sea and Bering Strait by conserving biodiversity, engaging
Alaska Native tribes and building a sustainable economy in the Arctic,
which is vulnerable to climate change.
[Biodiversity? Sustainable economy? Wtf? The Arctic is warming twice
as fast as the rest of the earth...]
12. Repealed an Obama-era rule regulating royalties for oil, gas
and coal. Lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry opposed 2016
Interior Department regulations meant to ensure fair royalties
were paid to the government for oil, gas and coal extracted from
federal or tribal land. In August, the Trump administration
rescinded the rule, saying it caused “confusion and uncertainty”
for energy companies.
[Just another giveaway to the oil companies, plain and simple.]
13. Withdrew guidance for federal agencies to include greenhouse
gas emissions in environmental reviews. Republicans in Congress
opposed the guidelines, which advised federal agencies to account
for possible climate effects in environmental impact reviews.
They argued that the government lacked the authority to make such recommendations, and that the new rules would slow down permitting.
[Well see, if you're planning to get rid of most of your environment
scientists anyway, how the hell will you do this? And they act
like climate change is some kind of hoax, so... obviously.]
14. Relaxed the environmental review process for federal
infrastructure projects. Oil and gas industry leaders said the
permit-issuing process for new infrastructure projects was costly
and cumbersome. In an August executive order, Mr. Trump announced
a policy he said would streamline the process for pipelines, bridges,
power lines and other federal projects. The order put a single
federal agency in charge of navigating environmental reviews,
instituted a 90-day timeline for permit authorization decisions
and set a goal of completing the full process in two years.
[Environmental issues? Fuck that. Just get it all done faster.
We're not raping the land nearly fast enough these days.]
15. Announced intent to stop payments to the Green Climate Fund.
Mr. Trump said he would cancel payments to the fund, a United
Nations program that helps developing countries reduce emissions
and adapt to climate change. Mr. Obama had pledged $3 billion,
$1 billion of which Congress has already paid out over the
opposition of some Republicans.
[Did we agree to help with that? Psych! We don't care.
We don't keep our promises either.]
16. Dropped proposed restrictions on mining in Bristol Bay, Alaska.
A Canadian company sued the E.P.A. over an Obama-era plan to
restrict mining in Bristol Bay, an important salmon fishery.
The Trump administration settled the suit and allowed the company
to apply for permits to build a large gold and copper mine in the
area. Alaska Republicans, including Senator Lisa Murkowski,
supported the mine.
[That's more gold for Trump bedrooms and shit. Who cares about fish?]
17. Removed the Yellowstone grizzly bear from the endangered list.
Noting that the species population had “rebounded from as few as
136 bears in 1975 to an estimated 700 today,” the Interior Department delisted the Yellowstone grizzly. Delisting the bears was first
formally proposed by the Obama administration in March 2016.
[Does 700 seem like a lot? Too bad there's not ten million
of them regularly eating from amongst the 8 billion humans.
Then maybe Trump's about to kill off billions of those too?]
18. Overturned a ban on the hunting of predators in Alaskan
wildlife refuges. Alaskan politicians opposed the law, which
prevented hunters from shooting wolves and grizzly bears on
wildlife refuges, arguing that the state has authority over
those lands. Congress passed a bill revoking the rule,
which Mr. Trump signed into law.
[Hey Bungalow Bill, little Donny Jr. wants to go hunting.]
19. Withdrew proposed limits on endangered marine mammals caught
by fishing nets on the West Coast. Under Mr. Trump, the National
Marine Fisheries Service withdrew the proposed rule, noting high
costs to the fishing industry and arguing that sufficient
protections were already in place.
[
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5MVC-29FeI ]
20. Stopped discouraging the sale of plastic water bottles in
national parks. The National Park Service had urged parks to reduce
or eliminate the sale of disposable plastic water bottles in favor
of filling stations and reusable bottles. The International Bottled
Water Association called the action unjustified.
[Gotta keep using 50 billion plastic bottles a year. Right? ]
21. Rescinded an Obama-era order to consider climate change in
managing natural resources in national parks. The 2016 policy,
which called for scientific park management, among other objectives,
was contested by Republicans. In August, the National Park Service
said they rescinded the policy in order to eliminate confusion among
the public and National Parks Service employees regarding the Trump administration’s “new vision” for America’s parks.
[New vision? If it involved "scientific", or "Obama" or "climate"
then it's gone, no matter how much sense it may have made.]
22. Directed agencies to stop using an Obama-era calculation of
the “social cost of carbon”. As part of an expansive March 2017
executive order, Mr. Trump directed agencies to stop using an
Obama-era calculation that helped rulemakers monetize the costs
of carbon emissions and instead base their estimates on a 2003
cost-benefit analysis. Mr. Trump also disbanded the working group
that created estimates for the social cost of carbon.
[Just more stupid-ass climate change denial. Reverting to the past,
to ensure that we may not even have a decent future.]
23. Revoked an update to the Bureau of Land Management's public
land use planning process. Republicans and fossil fuel industry
groups opposed the updated planning rule for public lands,
arguing that it gave the federal government too much power at
the expense of local and business interests. Congress passed a
bill revoking the rule, which Mr. Trump signed into law.
[It's PUBLIC land, but let's give more of it to business interests,
and especially to the ever-present... fossil fuel groups. ]
24. Removed copper filter cake, an electronics manufacturing
byproduct, from the “hazardous waste” list. Samsung petitioned the
E.P.A. to delist the waste product, which is produced during
electroplating at its Texas semiconductor facility.
The E.P.A. granted the petition after a public comment period.
[Naw, that stuff's not hazardous. Is it? Dump it in the landfill;
it'll probably be okay. Who can be concerned about trivia like that
with all this other awful shit going down? All right, I admit this
one may be okay, and perhaps a few others. But MOST of them are...
terribly short sighted pro-business crap, which seems to be the
only way Republicans are even capable of thinking these days.
The real irony is that ultimately it's not truly pro-business,
for the businesses of the future are inevitably more sustainable.]
***
(Half-time. To be continued. The worst HALF is yet to come...)
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)