Trump's Environmental Blitzkrieg Continues Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/10/trump-environmental-blitzkrieg-coronavirus
Administration is weakening protections ahead of the election, making changes that could take years for a Democratic president to undo
The Trump administration is diligently weakening US environment protections even amid a global pandemic, continuing its rollback as the November election approaches.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, US federal agencies have eased fuel-efficiency standards for new cars; frozen rules for soot air pollution; proposed to drop review requirements for liquefied natural gas terminals; continued to lease public property to oil and gas companies; sought to speed up permitting for offshore fish farms; and advanced a proposal on mercury pollution from power plants that could make it easier for the government to conclude regulations are too costly to justify their benefits.
The government has also relaxed reporting rules for polluters during the pandemic.
Trumps ambitions reach even to the moon, which he has announced he wants the US to mine.
Gina McCarthy, formerly Barack Obamas environment chief, now runs the Natural Resources Defense Council. She said the Trump administration was acting to cut public health protections while the American public is distracted by a public health crisis.
People right now are hunkered down trying to put food on the table, take care of people who are sick, worry about educating their children at home, McCarthy said. How many people are going to really be able to sit down and scrutinize these things in any way?
McCarthy said the government was literally not interested in the law or science, and that is going to become strikingly clear as people look at how the administration is handling Covid-19.
The Trump administration is playing both offense and defense, rescinding and rewriting some rules and crafting others that would be time-consuming for a Democratic president to reverse.