[Source: Orange County Register] Have we reached the point where air pollution regulations are harming people more than air pollution itself? That’s the question at the heart of the dispute between the Trump administration and California about the Environmental Protection Agency’s air pollution program known as NAAQS, the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. President Trump Read More…
Tag: EPA
Trump targets smog standards, ordering EPA to make it easier for companies to comply
[Source: Los Angeles Times] President Trump took aim at federal air quality standards Thursday, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to relax restrictions on state governments and businesses that have been key to cutting smog. In a memo, the president instructed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to more quickly review states’ smog-reduction plans, make it easier for businesses Read More…
Trump administration moves on two fronts to challenge California environmental protections
[Source: Los Angeles Times] The Trump administration openly threatened one of the cornerstones of California’s environmental protections Monday, saying that it may revoke the state’s ability under the Clean Air Act to impose stricter standards than the federal government sets for vehicle emissions. The announcement came as the administration confirmed it is tearing up landmark Read More…
Opinion: The ‘secret science’ that distorts air-quality studies
[Source: Orange County Register] See if you can spot the flaw in this logic: Disease-causing bacteria can be spread by hand contact. Boiling water kills bacteria. Plunge your hands into boiling water several times a day to prevent disease. If you can see the flaw in the logic, you have better eyesight than a lot Read More…
Expect environmental battles to be ‘even more significant’ in 2018
[Source: The New York Times] If 2017 was the Trump administration’s year of grand pronouncements declaring an end to environmental regulations, 2018 will be the year of trying to finish what it started. Despite President Trump’s proclamation in the Rose Garden that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the United States Read More…
A year-end look at Scott Pruitt’s EPA
[Source: The Washington Post] Given the pace at which the Environmental Protection Agency chief has rolled back his predecessors’ work (or at least attempted to), Scott Pruitt secured his place as a one of the most consequential Cabinet-level officials within the Trump administration with an aggressive first year at the helm. The Post’s Brady Dennis Read More…
E.P.A. officials, disheartened by agency’s direction, are leaving in droves
[Source: New York Times] More than 700 people have left the Environmental Protection Agency since President Trump took office, a wave of departures that puts the administration nearly a quarter of the way toward its goal of shrinking the agency to levels last seen during the Reagan administration. Of the employees who have quit, retired Read More…
California’s top air agency condemns EPA’s move to allow high-polluting, older trucks on roads
[Source: California Air Resources Board] Decades of clean air progress stand to be reversed if the US EPA opts to repeal its rule on limiting production of “glider kits,” said Steve Cliff, Deputy Executive Officer of the California Air Resources Board, testifying at a public hearing today at EPA headquarters in Washington D.C. A ‘glider Read More…
Trump’s environmental rollbacks hit California hard, despite Sacramento’s resistance
[Source: Los Angeles Times] When 50,000 acre-feet of water went gushing out of the Sacramento River last month, it fast became a test of California’s ability to protect its environmental policies from an increasingly hostile Trump administration. The episode proved humbling. Heeding the calls of big agriculture interests and area congressional Republicans, the administration pumped Read More…