When former-coal lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency testified before Senators at his confirmation hearing, he said climate change was “not the greatest crisis” facing our planet. Wheeler has served as Acting EPA Director since Scott Pruitt was ousted in July and will likely be … [Read more...]
EPA Loosens Rules on Power Plants, Raising Health Concerns
Time and time again, the Trump Administration's Environmental Protection Agency has provided Americans with good reason to believe it is less interested in protecting the environment than it is in protecting the profits of polluters. Now, the EPA is taking what is arguably its most important – and most dangerous – deregulatory step: a dramatic … [Read more...]
The Missing Language from Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy Plan
A New Draft of the Affordable Clean Energy Plan Notably Omits Any Mention of Climate Change Will climate change simply go away if it’s ignored? The Trump Administration sure seems to think so. For almost a year now, the White House has been aggressively dismantling Obama-era environmental regulations, often with questionable justifications for … [Read more...]
Black Lung Disease Returns in a Big Way
U.S. Miners Face Increasing Health Risks from Disease Once Thought Nearly Eradicated As a major component of his Presidential campaign, Donald Trump made numerous promises to people in “coal country”. He wanted to increase coal production, open coal mines and put coal miners back to work. While these campaign promises appealed to those connected … [Read more...]
Changes to Cost-Benefits Analysis at the Environmental Protection Agency
Amidst a wave of alleged ethical violations, Pruitt made headlines before resigning on July 5th. Those headlines spoke about scandalous decisions to delete controversial meetings from public calendars and unsavory uses of public funds for personal gain; but what they failed to mention was the serious damage he was dealing to the environment and the … [Read more...]
Obama’s Carbon Pricing Policy Thrives in Blue States
Just two months after Donald Trump took his oath of office, in March, 2017, EPA chief Scott Pruitt made it a priority to rescind President Obama’s signature climate control initiative, known as the Clean Power Plan (CPP), put in place by executive order in 2015. The regulation on power plants is the first of its kind to reduce greenhouse gas … [Read more...]
