January 17, 2020
The Trump administration is determined to undo protections of the environment going back as far as 1970. These protective regulations affect water, air, land and public health quality, and target limitations on greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions of mercury and smog, the reporting of natural gas emissions, chemical plant safety, use of pesticides, a moratorium on coal mining and regulation of coal mining waste, methane pollution, and fuel efficiency standards. All of these limitations are intended to benefit industries that donate to the Republican Party.
Statistics demonstrate that the benefits of these regulations far outweigh the costs by preventing illness and death. Yet the 95 regulations Trump wants to eliminate are well on their way to being rescinded: 58 of the targeted rules have already been revoked, and 37 of them are at various stages of being discontinued. For example, if Trump has his way, a 2019 proposal will halt federal protection of 51% of wetlands, and 18% of streams.
As it turns out, 2017 was an awful year for federal protection of the environment. In that year, the President indefinitely brought to a stop compliance deadlines imposed on toxic water pollution from coal-fired power plants. Furthermore, this President's EPA announced it would re-write limits on wastewater from bottom ash, scrubber, and coal gasification plants. The EPA also proposed in 2017 the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which requires utilities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants by 32% of 2005 levels by the year 2030.
Again in 2017, this anti-environment EPA declared its intention to review the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Rule, developed in response to a Supreme Court decision. This particular review appears unlikely to affect the implementation of the rule. On the other hand, the Trump administration moved to delay litigation over an EPA regulation that declares it must curb harmful air pollution during power plant startups, shutdowns, and malfunctions. The delay in litigation creates uncertainty with regard to enforcement of the regulation.
And Trump went after a regulation of major importance in - you guessed it - 2017: the Greenhouse Gas Rule. This rule limits carbon dioxide emissions from new, modified, or reconstructed fossil fuel-fired steam electric power plants. These plants contribute 40% of CO2 pollution in American air! If you want to learn more about this administration's nefarious environmental quality miscalculations, go to the Environmental Integrity Project's website, and search for Regulatory Rollbacks. Or, if you wish to protest the administration's ill-advised machinations, write to your Congressional representatives, and tell them that every one of these regulations needs to be passed into law. Do it today.
With thanks to the Environmental Integrity Project.
The Trump administration is determined to undo protections of the environment going back as far as 1970. These protective regulations affect water, air, land and public health quality, and target limitations on greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions of mercury and smog, the reporting of natural gas emissions, chemical plant safety, use of pesticides, a moratorium on coal mining and regulation of coal mining waste, methane pollution, and fuel efficiency standards. All of these limitations are intended to benefit industries that donate to the Republican Party.
Statistics demonstrate that the benefits of these regulations far outweigh the costs by preventing illness and death. Yet the 95 regulations Trump wants to eliminate are well on their way to being rescinded: 58 of the targeted rules have already been revoked, and 37 of them are at various stages of being discontinued. For example, if Trump has his way, a 2019 proposal will halt federal protection of 51% of wetlands, and 18% of streams.
As it turns out, 2017 was an awful year for federal protection of the environment. In that year, the President indefinitely brought to a stop compliance deadlines imposed on toxic water pollution from coal-fired power plants. Furthermore, this President's EPA announced it would re-write limits on wastewater from bottom ash, scrubber, and coal gasification plants. The EPA also proposed in 2017 the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which requires utilities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants by 32% of 2005 levels by the year 2030.
Again in 2017, this anti-environment EPA declared its intention to review the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Rule, developed in response to a Supreme Court decision. This particular review appears unlikely to affect the implementation of the rule. On the other hand, the Trump administration moved to delay litigation over an EPA regulation that declares it must curb harmful air pollution during power plant startups, shutdowns, and malfunctions. The delay in litigation creates uncertainty with regard to enforcement of the regulation.
And Trump went after a regulation of major importance in - you guessed it - 2017: the Greenhouse Gas Rule. This rule limits carbon dioxide emissions from new, modified, or reconstructed fossil fuel-fired steam electric power plants. These plants contribute 40% of CO2 pollution in American air! If you want to learn more about this administration's nefarious environmental quality miscalculations, go to the Environmental Integrity Project's website, and search for Regulatory Rollbacks. Or, if you wish to protest the administration's ill-advised machinations, write to your Congressional representatives, and tell them that every one of these regulations needs to be passed into law. Do it today.
With thanks to the Environmental Integrity Project.
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