Trump To Environment: Drop Dead
In a money saving move, 'Enabling Polluters Always' keeps the same initials as 'Environmental Protection Agency.'
While it was busy firing everyone last week, the Trump administration was also having a real hootenanny gutting America’s environmental laws, from killing a lawsuit against a Louisiana chemical plant in “Cancer Alley” because it would be racist to help Black cancer victims, to an announcement of the “Biggest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History” from EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who laid out 31 moves the agency is taking to undo environmental protections and enrich corporate polluters.
Remember how Donald Trump boasted during the campaign that he had “the cleanest air, the cleanest water,” and insists at every opportunity that he loves clean air and clean water? He means, of course, that as long as you can’t see the pollutants, the air and water are clean.
And wouldn’t you know it, carbon dioxide and methane, the top two culprits in global warming, are colorless and odorless, so they can’t be pollutants. (Science fact: For safety, “natural” gas, which is mostly methane, has the rotten egg stank added, to make leaks easier to detect.)
Deregulation Bloodath … Err, Oilbath!
In a brief video posted to Musk State TV, Zeldin declared that the EPA will henceforth no longer waste time or effort on “environment” or “protection,” freeing it up to more effectively enrich Republican campaign donors. Instead, the EPA’s new mission is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business” by throwing more fossil fuels and toxic sludge at everything.
“From the campaign trail to Day 1 and beyond, President Trump has delivered on his promise to unleash energy dominance and lower the cost of living,” Mr. Zeldin said. “We at E.P.A. will do our part to power the great American comeback.”
The New York Times notes (gift link) — quite elitistly — that “Nowhere in the video did he refer to protecting the environment or public health, twin tenets that have guided the agency since its founding in 1970.” But then we always knew that Nixon guy was a dirty hippie.
Zeldin’s announcement on its own doesn’t reverse any policies, but identifies a swath of regulations the administration plans to modify or reverse altogether, whatever courts let them get away with. To hold up in court, such rule changes have always had to follow federal procedures on rulemaking, including public comment, rigorous evidence, proof that they’re allowed by law and all that. So unless courts also allow new, sloppier rule-making, this shit will take some time to enact, and we can fight it.
Several of the 31 items on Zeldin’s hit list had already been reported, like his decision to kill off the EPA’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and the public welfare, because carbon dioxide and methane and the lot cause climate change. Reversing it would strip the EPA of the ability to regulate greenhouse gases altogether. Environmental law experts say that would be a long shot, but hey, Roberts Court.
Zeldin was SO EXCITED about that one, saying in the video,
“I’ve been told that the Endangerment Finding is the Holy Grail of the climate change religion. For me, the US Constitution and the laws of this nation will be strictly interpreted and followed. No exceptions. today the green new scam ends!”
Did you see that sleight of hand, kids? He’s suggesting a conflict between regulating greenhouse gases and the Constitution that doesn’t exist. There is no “climate change religion,” and the Endangerment Finding has been upheld in the courts several times.
Zeldin repeated that theme, only a bit more violently, in the EPA press release heralding the Return to Filth, exulting that “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.” He also lied that the energy policies of Climate Bishops Barack Obama and Joe Biden “have suffocated nearly every single sector of the American economy.” You know, apart from the record low unemployment and boom in manufacturing that Trump is already reversing.
Beyond stabbing the climate religion again and again until it bleeds out —metaphorically — Zeldin’s EPA plans to
overturn limits on soot from smokestacks that have been linked to respiratory problems in humans and premature deaths as well as restrictions on emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin. It would get rid of the “good neighbor rule” that requires states to address their own pollution when it’s carried by winds into neighboring states. And it would eliminate enforcement efforts that prioritize the protection of poor and minority communities.
In addition, when the agency creates environmental policy, it would no longer consider the costs to society from wildfires, droughts, storms and other disasters that might be made worse by pollution connected to that policy, Mr. Zeldin said.
Other Biden administration regulations Zeldin is gunning for include:
Emissions limits on cars and trucks, which Trump — and now Zeldin too! — always lied about, calling the standards an “EV mandate.” In reality, the rule still would have allowed gas and diesel vehicles to make up around half of new car sales by the 2032 model year.
Emissions limits on power plants, which would have required coal plants to “clean up or close” by 2032, and imposed tight CO2 emissions standards on new fossil gas plants.
Limits on carcinogenic pollutants from petrochemical plants and other industrial facilities.
Recalculating the “social cost of carbon” to allow far higher carbon emissions (archived WaPo link). You know, just in case killing off the Endangerment Finding doesn’t work.
Following Zeldin’s announcement, all the big polluters and their lobbyists said yay, while people who think it might be nice for future generations to have a habitable planet said it was pretty fucking bad, including former EPA administrators under Democratic and Republican presidents who weren’t Trump, all of whom blasted Zeldin and Trump for undermining the whole point of the EPA.
Fire All The Scientists So Pollution Goes Away
In a follow-up to the big regulatory rollback, the EPA is also planning to entirely eliminate its research and development office and fire 1,155 scientists. Without those troublesome eggheads and their stupid “research,” it’ll be harder to write regulations or even know about environmental threats. Yes, this IS another practical application of the Donald Trump method for dealing with COVID.
An EPA spokesliar insisted this is all wonderful, echoing Trump’s boilerplate lies about “clean” air and water.
Molly Vaseliou, an EPA spokeswoman, said the agency “is taking exciting steps as we enter the next phase of organizational improvements,” but said changes had not been finalized.
“We are committed to enhancing our ability to deliver clean air, water and land for all Americans,” she said
Once more: “Clean” in this context simply means that as long as air and water isn’t visibly full of crud, it’s good. But yeah, those smokestack particles aren’t going to be invisible either, they’re just lying.
In related news, Elon Musk’s Wrecking Crew appears to be targeting for closure the office that manages the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, which has tracked atmospheric greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere since 1958. You know, for “efficiency.”
Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been A Climate Scientist?
And finally, in an ominous Bluesky message Tuesday, journalist and former Jezebel Editor in Chief Laura Bassett reported,
From a source: “Just had a co-presenter for a buildings research conference bow out. She’s a dual citizen and the FBI came knocking to ask her about her involvement in coauthoring chunks of the Paris Agreement.
Climate science is being literally (and I mean literally) criminalized.”
At least two climate journalists asked Bassett publicly to see if the source is willing to be interviewed, so we may find out more about this. Because Jesus Christ on a solar-charged e-bike, if Trump is targeting climate scientists with unspecified threats to their immigration status, that’s a terrifying escalation in two directions.
Maybe those targeted should embrace Zeldin and claim they’re being persecuted as acolytes, or electrolytes, of the climate religion. If you need me, I’ll be ritually charging my new EV and chanting “Ohm.”
[NYT (gift link) / Guardian / AP / Laura Bassett on Bluesky]
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A common conservative argument is "I don't know why, so there is no reason." They don't understand any of the science behind climate change, don't want to learn it, and then just declare, "Well it can't possibly be true." I've never mean a climate change denier who could explain away any of the science and they just sticks to stock phrases like "Well, the climate's always changing." Nobody disagrees with that. The question is "Why do we think it's different this time." Because there are real reasons.
Fun bit of trivia that would blow their brains: Without some CO2 in the atmosphere, the surface of the Earth would be too cold for liquid water. A simple calculation I did in my first year of grad school. But you tell them that and you get "Oh, so now you're saying carbon dioxide is good." Nuance isn't their strong suit.
The “climate change religion” is code for the evangelical belief that venerating nature is a form of idolatry and anti-Christian blasphemy.