Trump Sabotages Efforts To Fight Climate Change
September 20, 2019
The Trump administration continues to harm the environment and undercut efforts to fight climate change. Here’s the latest:
The EPA revoked California’s power to set stricter standards for auto emissions, the nation’s biggest source of greenhouse gas pollution.
New York Times: “The Trump administration is expected Thursday morning to formally revoke California’s authority to set auto emissions rules that are stricter than federal standards, taking a major step forward in the administration’s wide-ranging attack on efforts to fight climate change.”
Trump’s Interior Department took an aggressive approach to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, despite its own analysis finding that it would harm native villages and lead to extinctions.
Washington Post: “The Trump administration on Thursday said it would seek to open up the entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, picking the most aggressive development option for an area long closed to drilling.”
Washington Post: “The agency’s own official analysis indicated that drilling would affect native villages, including residents of Kaktovik, because they are the ‘primary users’ of the refuge. The 450-person village of Nuiqsut, the agency wrote, ‘could experience impacts on caribou, waterfowl, and fish harvests from development.’”
E&E News: “Buried in the interior department’s plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an admission that oil and gas development may lead to extinctions in the remote expanse of Alaska.”
The Trump administration scrapped Obama-era clean water rules, returning the country to standards put in place in 1986.
ABC News: “The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced the official repeal of the Obama-era waters of the United States rule intended to protect bodies of water such as rivers and wetlands from pollution, returning the country to water standards from 1986.”