ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK

The Trump Administration is rolling back a wide variety of regulations that protect our water, air, land, and public health in order to benefit high-pollution industries that donate heavily to political campaigns.

Although the numbers show that environmental regulations on the whole are good for the economy and have benefits that far exceed costs by preventing illness and death from dangerous pollution, Trump’s war on environmental protections has been relentless. The administration has targeted almost 80 environmental rules, including those meant to control greenhouse gases, coal ash waste, water pollution, mercury, and smog.

Trump’s “Presidential Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” directs that “[t]he heads of agencies shall review all existing regulations… that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy resources.”

*Note: The EPA regulatory rollbacks discussed here are, unless otherwise noted, regulatory actions by EPA that the Trump Administration has taken some action or publicly targeted for rollback. Note that most of the rules that EPA is attempting to roll back have actually only been “stayed” by EPA, meaning EPA is attempting to freeze the rules or portions thereof for a period of time and is reconsidering all or portions of those rules. To actually overturn a rule, EPA needs to undertake a notice and comment process. Also, many of the actions that other sites list as environmental rollbacks are not actually rules or regulations (for example, approving the Keystone XL pipeline permit or rescinding guidance documents), or are not EPA actions (many are Department of the Interior Actions), so those lists may be broader than this one. In addition, not all of EPA’s regulatory rollbacks are discussed in detail here.

Navy Vet

Article URL : http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/trump-watch-epa/regulatory-rollbacks/