Environment

In a move the oil and gas industry, enormous donors to (owners of) Trump and the GOP, is ecstatic about, an executive order was signed Friday to expand offshore drilling for oil and gas.

On Wednesday the President intends to sign an order for the Interior Department and Secretary Zinke to review all national monument designations made by the past 3 presidents over the past 21 years, which could "upend protections that previous presidents have put in place in Utah and elsewhere across the country."

In SmartDissent's Budget Cuts Series, we are detailing many of the White House proposed budget cuts.  A prime eample of the importance of this series in the proposed impacts to the Environmental Protection Agency.  We seek to learn and share what's hidden beneath the surface.  While climate change denial and associated concerns have dominated the discussion of the massive funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, far more is at stake in a variety of ways.

As discussed one week ago on Smart Dissent, on Tuesday an Executive Order was signed which spits in the face of every human or other living organism in the world including billions of future ones.

The Senate has once again turned to the Congressional Review Act, a measure they've been usually nonstop over the past two months to repeal laws issued by the prior administration with only a majority vote.  Earlier this week, they approved a bill nearly along party lines to repeal hunting restrictions on national wildlife refuges in Alaska.  These restrictions were instituted by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2016 to protect predator species from hunters.   

An executive order is anticipated this week that will dismantle efforts of President Obama to curb the impacts of climate change and lower 

The moves are intended to send an unmistakable signal to the nation and the world that Trump intends to follow through on his campaign vows to rip apart every element of .... policies to address climate change.

The budget guidelines offered by the White House last week include deep cuts to numerous important agencies and programs while proposing to pour the savings into military spending which already equals the next seven countires combined (China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, UK, India, France, Japan).  

In an explicitly stated attempt to place economic interests above the environment and safe drinking water, the President and his new EPA director began the process to roll back an Obama-era environmental protection rule.

The Trump administration is moving to roll back an environmental rule intended to define which small bodies of water are subject to federal authority under the Clean Water Act.

Last Wednesday February 15th, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing called “Oversight: Modernization of the Endangered Species Act” at which Republicans attacked the 43-year-old law as being broken and in need of an overhaul.  The Endangered Species Act, a law that has 90% approval ratings according to a 2015 poll, has more than 1,600 plants and animals under its protection.  

Scott Pruitt, who has called for the dissolution of much of the agency’s authority, has been confirmed to run the Environmental Protection Agency.  He is a seasoned legal opponent of the agency and will now lead Trump's publicized efforts to dismantle major regulations on climate change and clean water and "get rid" of the agency.  At a time when our nation and the world would benefit from a more supported EPA, the exact opposite has occurred, an impossible pill to swallow.