Trump moves to weaken two environmental laws in effort to ‘return Americans to work’
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that would allow government agencies to look past historic environmental regulations in order to speed federal approval of infrastructure projects that he says will return Americans to work during the coronavirus pandemic.
The same day, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule that could limit future air pollution controls. Together, the moves waive requirements from the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Air Act that were signed into law to ensure public and environmental health.
Supporters bolster the decisions as a way to promote economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, while opponents claim the administration is exploiting the pandemic by putting money first and lives second, especially those of minorities who tend to be most impacted by such moves.
“When we say we can’t breathe, we are not only talking about the knees on our necks and chokeholds from police, but also the squeezing of life from our lungs brought on by the pollution that the Trump Administration continues to pump into our bodies by the rolling back of the very laws that are meant to give us justice and access,” Mustafa Santiago Ali, the former associate administrator of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, told The Verge in an emailed statement.
Since Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency in March, more than 41 million Americans have filed for unemployment, reaching a rate of 14.7% in April before dropping to 13.3% in May.
As a result of historic unemployment levels, officials from several industries, including those related to fossil fuels, expressed support for the moves.
“These reforms help to avoid federal rules that could otherwise hurt American workers, businesses and our economy,” Anne Bradbury, chief executive of the American Exploration and Production Council, told The New York Times.
Those federal rules include the “unnecessary regulatory delays” that “deny our citizens opportunities for jobs and economic security,” Trump wrote in the executive order.
“Agencies should take all reasonable measures to speed infrastructure investments and to speed other actions in addition to such investments that will strengthen the economy and return Americans to work, while providing appropriate protection for public health and safety, natural resources, and the environment, as required by law,” Trump said.
However, environmental protection is far from what the decisions intend to do, according to environmental advocacy groups and supporters.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said his department’s proposal would allow other federal agencies to disregard benefits of reduced air pollution while making decisions on infrastructure projects, according to the Times.
The decision goes against the Clean Air Act of 1970 designed to control national air pollution levels, the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement emailed to McClatchy News.
“What this rule is doing is altering the math in such a way to potentially downplay the economic benefit to public health, so they are justified in writing weaker rules in the future,” Richard Morgenstern, a former EPA official, told the Times.
The order could lead to an increase in industrial soot, or particulate matter, which is linked to breathing issues, eye irritation, lung cancer and birth defects.
People living in poverty are 1.35 times more likely to be exposed to air pollution from construction and factories than those who are not, according to a study in the American Journal of Public Health. The burden on blacks is 1.54 times higher than the overall population.
Harvard researchers also revealed in April that a small increase in particulate matter “leads to a large increase in the COVID-19 death rate.” It’s the first study to link the two.
The executive order would also restrict communities from learning about and commenting on the environmental and health consequences of projects happening in their communities, the Environmental Defense Fund EDF said.
The public is usually given the right to address these concerns through the National Environmental Policy Act, which was signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon.
But with Trump’s new order, responsibilities to consider harms to the environment and public health are no longer required because of a section of federal law that allows the president to do so because he has declared a national emergency, according to the executive order.
In January, Trump proposed similar changes to NEPA that would take control away from communities over such projects, according to the EDF, which have in the past helped the public oppose the 1,172 mile-long Dakota Access pipeline.
The Trump administration has also attempted, with some success, to weaken regulations on the Clean Car Standards, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the Clean Power Plan, the EDF reports.
“By signing this executive order, Donald Trump is muzzling the voice of environmental justice communities, and continues to make clear his total disregard for those speaking out and fighting for racial justice and a sustainable environment,” Democratic N.Y. Sen. New York Senator Chuck Schumer said in a statement provided to the Times.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Trump moves to weaken two environmental laws in effort to ‘return Americans to work’."
