Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment

[Tom_Mazanec]

You are welcome. I’m a poor typist myself.

[vox_mundi]

Climate crisis will not be discussed at G7 next year, says Trump official
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/17/g7-summit-2020-trump-climate-crisis

The climate crisis will not be formally discussed at the G7 summit in June next year in Miami, Donald Trump’s acting White House chief of staff said on Thursday.

“Climate change will not be on the agenda,” Mick Mulvaney told reporters, without elaborating.

... “It’s deeply ironic that the US state most vulnerable immediately to climate change impacts will host a meeting at which global leaders will be forced by the US to largely ignore the topic”

Mulvaney announced that the 2020 summit of seven of the world’s most powerful industrialised countries will take place at the National Doral Miami, one of the president’s golf resorts in Florida, despite widespread ethics concerns and an ongoing impeachment inquiry into Trump’s conduct.

[gerontocrat]

Ho hum.....

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/10/24/20927103/air-pollution-study-deaths-elderly-obama-trump
Study: US air pollution deaths increased by 9,700 a year from 2016 to 2018
The increase might be due to overly lax policies from both Trump and Obama.

Air pollution is killing more people during the Trump administration than it was under President Obama. Air pollution was responsible for 9,700 more deaths in 2018 than it was in 2016, according to a new paper by economists at Carnegie Mellon.

The researchers, Karen Clay and Nicholas Muller, argue that some of the increase is due to non-regulatory factors, like an increase in wildfires and economic growth. But they note a decline in Clean Air Act enforcement under Donald Trump that could be responsible as well.

The Trump administration has so far rolled back 24 different regulations and accords related to air pollution, according to a New York Times analysis, including rules around air pollution from refineries, industrial pollution of 189 different substances, and regulation of “haze” in national parks.

But the specific kind of pollution addressed in the new study is what experts call PM2.5: microscopic particles 2.5 micrometers or less wide (a small fraction of the diameter of a human hair) arising from human industry, including coal mining and burning, gasoline combustion, construction dust, etc.

PM2.5 can kill people in a number of ways: by causing “heart disease and stroke, lung cancer, chronic lung disease, and respiratory infections,” to name a few listed in a recent report from the Health Effects Institute and the Global Burden of Disease project. That report estimates that PM2.5 killed about 4.1 million people in 2016 alone through those mechanisms.

[vox_mundi]

EPA to Ease Restrictions on How Coal Plants Store Toxic Waste: Report
https://earther.gizmodo.com/epa-to-ease-restrictions-on-how-coal-plants-store-toxic-1839588546

In his ongoing quest to become a mustache-twirling eco-villain, Donald Trump plans to start rolling back Obama-era EPA safeguards on Monday regarding how coal powerplants store their toxic waste according to multiple reports.

As part of an initiative to protect local waterways in 2015, the Obama administration strengthened regulations affecting how these plants dispose and store contaminated water and “coal ash,” that sludgy byproduct coal plants produce where you can find a potentially poisonous concoction of arsenic, mercury, and heavy metals.

Now the EPA plans to relax requirements these rules put in place and exempt many plants from having to enact them at all, sources familiar with the matter told the New York Times. EPA Administrator and former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler told the Washington Post that the Obama-era rules “placed heavy burdens on electricity producers across the country.”

Companies have also complained requirements like lining coal ash ponds to keep them from leaking contaminants into nearby groundwater and adopting better waste management technology are prohibitively expensive to abide by. No doubt because coal is becoming prohibitively expensive itself compared to other renewable resources. And why would any business want to use its hard-earned money on something as frivolous as potable water?

[kassy]

The US has begun the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, notifying the UN of its intention to leave, as other countries expressed regret and disappointment at the move.

The notification begins a one-year process of exiting the global climate change accord, culminating the day after the 2020 US election.

etc
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50297029

[vox_mundi]

Scientists See Tobacco Industry Playbook in TRump's Plan to Overhaul EPA'S Public Health Rules
https://www.newsweek.com/scientists-see-tobacco-industry-playbook-trumps-plan-overhaul-epas-public-health-rules-1471303?amp=1

The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to limit what scientific evidence can guide public health regulations echoes tactics used by the tobacco industry to invalidate science regarding the tobacco industry, scientists told Newsweek.

The EPA plans to require scientists to disclose all raw data before the agency considered a study's conclusions, The New York Times reported Monday. The proposal, which was described by the government as a step toward transparency, would restructure the process by which the EPA creates public health regulations.

... In a 1996 message sent by a tobacco industry lawyer to the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, a similar tactic is described. The correspondence—which was sent just two years before the United States entered the sweeping Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement that settled claims brought by 46 states and the District of Columbia against major tobacco companies—argues that RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company should push to restructure the process through which the government evaluates scientific evidence for regulations.

"It is critical to our overall goal that EPA not be allowed to change the forum into an industry-by-industry examination. Equally important, the process should not devolve into 'outdoor air' interest seeking to shift the focus to 'indoor air' interests," said the 1996 note, prompted by concerns that the EPA would soon re-evaluate policies relating to environmental tobacco smoke. "Instead, the efforts we envision focus on the process by which EPA arrived at its scientific conclusions, avoiding to the extent possible specific scientific issues, contaminants, or industries."

https://mobile.twitter.com/JohnDWalke/status/1194244737483624448

https://mobile.twitter.com/drdavidmichaels/status/1194029653746434048

[vox_mundi]

At Least 60% of Superfund Sites Vulnerable to Climate Change, Congressional Watchdog Warns
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/superfund-sites-gao-government-watchdog-warning-vulnerability-climate-change-today-2019-11-18/

Washington — At least 60% of U.S. Superfund sites are in areas vulnerable to flooding or other worsening disasters of climate change, and the Trump administration's reluctance to directly acknowledge global warming is deterring efforts to safeguard them, a congressional watchdog agency says.

In a report being released Monday, the Government Accountability Office called on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler to state directly that dealing with the rising risks of seas, storms or wildfires breaching Superfund sites under climate change is part of the agency's mission.

https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-73

The findings emphasize the challenges for government agencies under President Trump, who frequently mocks scientists' urgent warnings on global heating.

Superfund Sites Located in Areas that May Be Impacted by Flooding, Storm Surge, Wildfires, or Sea Level Rise


GAO-20-73 Report: ... EPA has not taken actions consistent with one essential element because it has not aligned its process for managing risks with agency-wide goals and objectives, which do not mention climate change. Without clarifying this alignment, EPA cannot ensure that senior officials will take an active role in strategic planning and accountability for managing these risks.

[nanning]

^^
O oh. That is baaaad news for all life there.