Assessing the Attack on the Environment
Part One: The Assault on Policy, Regulation and Science
Editor’s Note: So extensive is this attack on the nation’s environmental regulations and programs, this report will be split into three parts, this initial summary of regulation and policy, a second article on program and agency cuts, and a third on energy issues.
The assault on the environment – programs, policies, funding, the purging of personnel, the cessation of research, the dissolution of overseas aid, and the termination of environmental justice programs – has been unrelenting. And with so many other things going on, it has become difficult to keep track what it all means.
A Reflection
I began this series more than three months ago but found it difficult to finish because the onslaught was never-ending. Just when you thought the demolition of a half century of environmental protections couldn’t get any worse or more illogical, it did. This presented two problems (beyond the obvious environmental mess it created):
The story would be out-of-date a few days after I finished it.
Even with summarized accounts, the tale was too long for a single article.
Despite those shortcomings, I realized such a summary was important, for so few comprehensive lists like this one have been done for these very reasons.
Allow one last thought, by recollecting something from my days teaching high school Earth and Environmental Science. I often noted to students that money proves to be a powerful motivator for people to twist the truth, manipulate public policy, and provide financial benefits to those already of considerable wealth. High school kids got that point, I would argue, because they came to understand both the science and the politics which created that dynamic. It would seem many adults (and especially those in what I’ll call the New EPA) never learned that lesson or (blinded by greed) have chosen to ignore it.
Regulation and Policy
A host of regulations, most clearly dictated by statute, have been proposed to be or already have been rescinded, delayed or weakened, often undermining decades of success controlling pollutants and safeguarding workers, the public and natural resources.
Toxic Air Emissions and hazardous material regulations and restrictions overseen by the EPA and OSHA are being proposed to be eased or eliminated.
Fact: The health benefits, workplace safety improvements, and environmental protection resulting from passage of several dozen related environmental laws since the 1960s have likely saved millions of lives and enhanced the quality of life immeasurably.
Impact: The Environmental Protection Network (EPN) analyzed 12 of the 31 regulatory rollbacks proposed by the EPA (using data published by the agency) and concluded that air pollution increases alone would lead to nearly 200,000 premature deaths in the next 35 years. Here are just a few:
Asbestos imported for several products (at the behest of the American Chemistry Council)
Chloroprene (from neoprene manufacturing)
Methane emissions from natural gas drilling and transport
Particulates from fossil fuels burning (encouraged by the American Chemistry Council)
Mercury (from coal power plants)
PFAS have long been used for a variety of coatings and other products to repel oil, water, stains, and heat. One of the most common of these chemicals has been designated as a human carcinogen and several others are suspected carcinogens according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The new pro-industry EPA has used ongoing research on other PFAS as justification to cancel new standards on four PFAS and delay action on several others.
Fact: PFAS’s stability and persistent may be an industrial benefit, but it makes it a serious detriment to our health and water quality. The American Chemistry Council has talked the new administration into eliminating the standards and postponing any substantive action.
Impact: Already impacting water in 47 states, this action will allow the “Forever Chemicals” to be sold and used in the United States for the foreseeable future. Earthjustice’s Katherine O’Brien contends, “The Trump administration’s decision to green light the continued pollution of our drinking water with toxic PFAS while crowing about their commitment to making America healthy is a sick joke.”
National Forest Protections have also been impacted in the administration’s effort to take as many board feet of lumber from the forest system as possible.
Fact: The elimination of the Roadless Rule, instituted by Bill Clinton and intended to preserve habitat and protect old growth forests, will open these sensitive areas to damaging forest road construction. Programs for small forest management and greenhouse gas reduction have also been eliminated. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who is entrusted to protect the National Forests, declared, “We’re not doing climate change crud anymore.”
Impact: Beyond the degradation to wild areas and water quality, this will actually do the opposite of what Rollins claims and will increase the likelihood of fires.
Sources:
Workplace Pollutant and safety regulations promulgated through the Occupational and Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have been responsible for saving countless lives in the workplace, but manufacturers have complained they can be expensive. In response, elimination of sixty workplace regulations and massive cuts to OSHA have been proposed or enacted.
Fact: OSHA regulations alone have likely saved 700,000 lives since passage of the act creating the agency half a century ago.
Impact: “The costs associated with workplace injuries extend beyond medical bills and lost wages; they also include legal battles, disability benefits, and long-term claims,” according to workerscompensation.com.
Sources:
Energy/Environmental Information
If the public is ignorant of the facts as they truly exist, it’s much easier to manipulate public perceptions, policy and practices and undermine sound environmental policy. Keep the public uninformed and oblivious to the problems and the fossil fuel and special corporate interests will more easily get their way.
Environmental Data of all sorts have been scrubbed from multiple federal government websites and EPA’s Office of Research and Development (which assesses the health risks of chemicals) is being dismantled.
Fact: Not only is the science and economic data related to environmental degradation and climate change being removed from websites, some new data on the cost of climate disasters isn’t even being gathered and compiled. An effort led by the American Chemical Council to thwart chemical testing for a broad range of industries will result in chemicals being tested by their manufacturers rather than the EPA.
Impact: As if we already had not shoved climate change and toxic chemicals far enough into the deep dark recesses of the media and our national dialogue, now we’re erasing their impacts from the public scientific record. Evidently, what we don’t know can’t hurt us.
Sources:
Environmental Media was dealt a big blow when federal funding of public radio and television (traditional electronic media’s most scientific networks) was cut.
Fact: Beyond seven regular television shows on nature and the environment, the PBS News Hour reported on climate change twice as much as the next national newscast. National Public Radio is the only notable source of science news on the radio. Like many other public broadcasting outlets across the country, the Alleghenies’ WPSU produces solid science/environmental programming, most notably in our case, the Allegheny Front and Weather World.
Impact: In a nation already cursed by mediocre science literacy and misinformation-plagued social media, the last thing we need to do is yank one more brick from our already crumbling wall of science and environmental education.