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Okay, so it's become very clear the EPA and Interior are not letting up on environmental rollbacks during COVID19. Going to track those here.
March 4: EPA is moving forward with its controversial rule to block science that relies on private medical data, like studying respiratory problems from smog. After an unusually short comment period, EPA ended up extending comments another month https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/03/the-trump-administration-is-enshrining-its-anti-science-policy-in-the-midst-of-an-epidemic/
March 31: EPA and DOT finalized its reversal of what was probably Obama's biggest climate legacy: Fewer gas-guzzling cars. The new rule has weaker standards than what the auto industry expects to achieve, will cause economic losses and premature deaths https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/03/coronavirus-epa-deregulation/
April 14: Despite the evidence that soot standards are too lenient, EPA is keeping them as they are for the next five years. There's increasing evidence shows link between air pollution and COVID19 vulnerability. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/14/epa-pollution-coronavirus/
March/April: There's a huge glut of oil supply, but that hasn't stopped Interior from selling more public lands leases. Tracker from @WstrnPriorities shows most of Interior's COVID activities have been at BLM's leasing and mining expansions (ht @_JPD) https://medium.com/westwise/as-america-fought-coronavirus-the-interior-secretary-rushed-through-dozens-of-environmental-1fa91abe02c7
Trump is in a race against the 2020 election to burnish his legacy. From the start, the fossil fuel industry wishlist has been top priority. We're going to see a *lot* more in coming weeks and months.
Reach out to me if there's more that's flying under the radar.
Reach out to me if there's more that's flying under the radar.
April 14: citing COVID, the Forest Service just extended timber industry contracts up to two years in national forests. Loggers in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, get a three year extension https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/national-forest-logging-extended-to-support-industry-in-pandemic
Tomorrow (April 15) the EPA is expected to formally reverse the first-ever limit on mercury pollution from power plant smokestacks, in the works since the *1990s** Most utilities have already complied, and led to a wave of coal plant closures. It won't bring back coal.
April 15: A new Dept of Transportation rule that weakens how pipeline operators plan for oil spills and lowers the threshold for reporting spills, in order "to reduce the regulatory burden on pipeline systems transporting hazardous liquids." https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-05721.pdf
