[RD] The US Environmental Protection Agency

[Perfection]

The swamp draining seems to be going well.

If Trump was really interested in draining the Swamp he'd take on the Pentagon, not the HUD or EPA

 

[demiurgenext]

That's basically right. There have been a number of acts passed. Most of them were to rescind pending regulation. That is low profile rather than unimportant. Still, it is all in the same vein. What Trump has done substanially is cut red tape and defund a lot of climate change initiatives. Other than that it has been a lot of meet and greet at the White House while SecState travels the world.

Unless and until we get a crisis, that may be the extent of things.

J

No, he hasn't defunded a lot of climate change initiatives. The EPA is funded at 99% of its previous value. The Dems won nearly across the board in the last budget talks. The Presidents budget was completely ignored.

Oh, and btw, even under Trump, the EPA website doesn't indicate it's role is limited as you indicate:
https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/our-mission-and-what-we-do

Funny thing happens when these guys come in. They end up being educated on these topics whether they want to or not. And so they often leave their rhetoric behind.

Hell, our Oil CEO Secretary of State just announced that global warming is a significant threat to the Arctic Ocean and pledged the United States to meeting our commitments.

One of the primary drivers of climate change in US government policy? The Pentagon. They've created their own climate threat analysis, and back in 2003 under Bush43 they put it as the foremost security issue for the United States in the 21st century. That policy conintues today. Their threat analysis patterns look at government instability caused by climate change. One recent example - Syria, and the refugee crisis there. The Syrian civil war started by a huge wave of farmers heading to the city - because there was an unprecedented 5 year drought.

 

[Lexicus]

The Syrian civil war started by a huge wave of farmers heading to the city - because there was an unprecedented 5 year drought.

And it was touched off by a drought in Ukraine, which is where they were importing their grain from due to the eastern Mediterannean drought. Food prices spiked and...we know the rest.

 

[FriendlyFire]

What wrong with drinking water that is black ?
Benzene is Not a pollutant if emitted by Oil or Gas company also its the EPA fault too many regulations and enforcement

How Rollbacks at Scott Pruitt’s E.P.A. Are a Boon to Oil and Gas

By 2014, Devon stood accused by the E.P.A. of releasing 80 more tons a year of the harmful gases from its Beaver Creek plant in Wyoming than its permit allowed. The extra emissions amounted to a fifth more than the company’s stated emissions of 361 tons in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available.

This class of chemicals — known as volatile organic compounds — is extremely potent and is blamed for helping create blankets of smog. Several of the chemicals are known carcinogens.
wells started cropping up close to residential areas, including about 200 feet from his Fremont County ranch. His neighbors’ water turned black. His wife, Catherine, complained of losing her senses of smell and taste.

But Mr. Fenton’s concerns have not gained wider traction. Residents fret mostly about the crackdown on energy companies under Mr. Obama, which coincided with a downturn in oil and gas production brought on largely by a glut in the market and lower energy prices. That has made his tough approach a scapegoat for the downturn, and it is difficult to overstate the animosity toward federal environmental agencies.

“The E.P.A. is the evil empire here,” said Steven R. Peck, publisher of The Ranger, Fremont County’s daily newspaper. “But the regulatory game hasn’t changed as much as the oil and gas industry itself,” he said.

Mr. Warren lost his $23-an-hour job at the SST Energy Corporation earlier this year after he mangled his hand in a chain, he said. He is bitter toward Washington politicians, who he said were squeezing the life out of Riverton.
“They aren’t helping us,” Mr. Warren said. “If I had a gun, I’d shoot them.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/...tml?hp&target=comments&_r=0#commentsContainer

 

[onejayhawk]

More on Pruitt's crusade.
http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...t_s_deregulations_won_t_hold_up_in_court.html

Pruitt is starting to run into legal barriers in his quest to deregulate the EPA. The unstated agenda up to this point has been to divorce the EPA from climate change. This is a defensible positions. However, he was not overturned on a GHG issue. These are noxious gases that should be regulated even if the EPA has no responsibility regarding climate change.

J

Moderator Action: Bumps to RD threads certainly require more substance than a URL. Please remember to incorporate more content into your replies during bumps (and link-drops are generally discouraged in RD threads regardless). - Vincour
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Borachio]

Yeah.

I'm really not sure that article says what you'd like it to say.

Pruitt’s willingness to play fast and loose has helped his anti-regulatory reputation soar. But the brazen deficiencies in the agency’s work exposing the hollowness of Pruitt’s “rule of law” rhetoric should give Pruitt’s supporters pause.

 

[Zkribbler]

If the EPA does not carry out the expanded roles that Congress has directed it to do then the EPA and its Trump director will be open legal challenges and possible damages.

Impeachment, theoretically, but "damages?" not in a million years.

 

[onejayhawk]

Impeachment, theoretically, but "damages?" not in a million years.

Impeachment? Trump is getting praise for this.

Damages? That is more possible, but you have a heavy burden of proof.

J

 

[Cutlass]

Impeachment? Trump is getting praise for this.

Damages? That is more possible, but you have a heavy burden of proof.

J

Trump is only being 'praised' by people who want to rape away America's future to feed their own personal greed and selfishness now. Not by anyone who actually gives a damn about the country. Or their children.

 

[Silurian]

Impeachment, theoretically, but "damages?" not in a million years.

It is possible that financial claims for damage caused by climate change could end up like the claims against the tobacco companies.

 

[Borachio]

You mean, forgotten?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Master_Settlement_Agreement#Criticism

Oh well, maybe not.

But on the other hand:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/hea...pensation-claims-over-UK-plain-packaging.html

I can see car manufacturers making claims against the UK government for obliging them to retool into making electric cars.

 

[Silurian]

Well many car manufactures are deciding to go all electric independently of the UK government.



The local pollution produced by cars is a major problem which is likely to be combated by increased charges and taxes for urban driving.
By 2040 when all new electric cars are proposed self driving cars will begin to be wide spread. It is probable that many will be used for taxi like services which would result to a reduction in the overall number of vehicles as families stop owning a second or any car.
So the number of non electric cars and the total number is likely to decline anyway.

 

[onejayhawk]

Pollution by electric cars is a different major problem. Old batteries are a well known headache.

J

 

[Borachio]

You're not wrong.

But the major difference between pollution by electric vehicles and diesel/petrol-powered ones is that electric vehicles don't tend to spread their pollution all over town.

 

[onejayhawk]

You're not wrong.

But the major difference between pollution by electric vehicles and diesel/petrol-powered ones is that electric vehicles don't tend to spread their pollution all over town.

Tell that to the water supply. Still, you have a point. It is much easier to confine liquid and solid waste.

J

 

[Samson]

Tell that to the water supply. Still, you have a point. It is much easier to confine liquid and solid waste.

J

Care to explain? How does a tesla harm the water supply? As I understand it the problem is that you generate more CO2 by burning coal to make electricity and charge a tesla than to use an efficient internal combustion engine.

 

[Lexicus]

Care to explain? How does a tesla harm the water supply? As I understand it the problem is that you generate more CO2 by burning coal to make electricity and charge a tesla than to use an efficient internal combustion engine.

IIRC there's a lot of toxic metals in the batteries. At least, that was/is true of Priuses.

 

[Synobun]

IIRC there's a lot of toxic metals in the batteries. At least, that was/is true of Priuses.

No problem. We can rely on regulation from the EPA to address this issue.

 

[Samson]

IIRC there's a lot of toxic metals in the batteries. At least, that was/is true of Priuses.

Surely there is no good reason for battery toxins to enter the water supply. If for no other reason than these metals are really valuable, and it has to be easier to get them from old batteries than the soil. I can see AA batteries ending up in landfill, but surely not Priuse batteries?

 

[Lexicus]

Surely there is no good reason for battery toxins to enter the water supply. If for no other reason than these metals are really valuable, and it has to be easier to get them from old batteries than the soil. I can see AA batteries ending up in landfill, but surely not Priuse batteries?

*shrug* I don't know the details. I do know that J would like to get rid of or render impotent the main agency tasked with preventing that stuff from happening, so for him to complain about it is a nice bit of bad faith.