#Trumps EPA readies a present to the coal industry

[riversedge]

EPA readies a present to the coal industry
The agency that supposedly protects you the environment is about to let polluters make it worse

https://www.salon.com/2020/02/03/epa-readies-a-present-to-the-coal-industry_partner/



Sarah Okeson
February 3, 2020 10:00AM (UTC)



Trump's EPA administrator wants to redraw our nation's mercury standard to benefit coal-fired power plants that belch out nearly half the nation's mercury emissions. But the agency's Science Advisory Board is balking.

The board, headed by Trump administration appointee Michael Honeycutt who previously opposed tougher mercury standards, told the EPA it needed to look again at how much mercury people get from fish and the harm from mercury.

"EPA should instigate a new risk assessment," the board wrote.

Under former President Barack Obama, the EPA only looked at IQ losses in children born to mothers who ate freshwater fish caught by amateur anglers from lakes where the EPA had information on fish tissue. This excluded most of the fish eaten in our country, much of it imported or fish from the ocean.

"It's absolutely incorrect," said Elsie Sunderland, a professor of environmental science and engineering at Harvard.
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Ellen Kurlansky, a former EPA air policy analyst, said the board recommendation isn't clear about whether ocean fish should be included in a new assessment.

"What does that actually mean?" she asked.

The Trump EPA packed the Science Advisory Board with industry-friendly appointees like air pollution researcher Robert Phalen who said air can be "a little too clean" for children's health and consultant Brant Ulsh who claims radiation at low doses may not be dangerous.

The mercury report mentioned a discredited study by consultant and board member Tony Cox that claimed soot in the air can be beneficial.

But even this tainted board couldn't stomach what the Trump EPA wants to do to our planet. The board also questioned a proposed rule that would limit which wetlands and waterways are protected by the Clean Water Act and the rollback of clean car standards...........................................

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