• Politics

“Frack Pack” Bills Reintroduced by Congress — Time to Close Loopholes?

• clean air
• clean water
• climate change
• greenhouse gasses
• oil and gas
• rollbacks

Today, four House Democrats — Matt Cartwright (PA) Yvette Clarke (NY), Diana DeGette (CO), and Jan Schakowsky (IL) — reintroduced a package of five bills that would hold oil and gas companies accountable to meet national water and air protection standards, plugging loopholes and undoing many of the anti-environment policies of the Trump administration. 

Why This Matters: President Donald Trump rolled back 28 air quality and emissions regulations and 8 water pollution regulations — these bills would reverse those rollbacks and close loopholes in current law.

• Sustainability

Top Ten Stories of 2020: Trump Showers US With Rollbacks

• climate change
• oil and gas
• Paris Climate Agreement
• regulation
• rollbacks
• water efficiency

President Trump will go down in history as having engaged in a fast and furious attempt to roll back decades of progress on environmental laws, particularly in his final few months in office.  Nothing epitomizes these relentlessly punitive rollbacks more than the absurdity of his obsession with undoing water efficiency requirements for toilets, dishwashers, showerheads, and washing machines.

• Climate Change

European Climate Leaders Welcome Biden Win

• climate change
• Greta Thunberg
• Paris Agreement
• rollbacks

Even before the election was called by the major networks for Joe Biden, climate-focused European politicians and elected officials were among the first to congratulate the President-elect on his victory. 

Why This Matters: Currently, the US is one of only a very few countries not committed to the global effort to curb emissions and keep rising temperatures in check.

• Politics

You Know What’s REALLY Scary? Another Four Years of Trump

• air pollution
• algal blooms
• clean water
• climate change
• conservation
• Freddie Krueger
• Ghostbusters
• Halloween
• Joe Biden
• Nightmare on Elm Street
• rollbacks
• safe drinking water
• Scream
• toxins

It’s Halloween — a time when people think scaring each other is fun. But this year, we are afraid very, very afraid — of what might happen on global warming and the environment in the United States if Donald Trump, the Freddie Krueger of climate action and conservation, wins a second term in the election. Talk about a Nightmare on Elm Street.

It’s frightening to think about what our country will look like after four more years of Trump.  But in the spirit of the season, let’s try to picture it.

• People

Supreme Court Decisions Provide Opportunities for Wins in Climate and Environment Cases

• Administrative Procedure Act
• environment
• rollbacks
• rules
• Supreme Court

This week, the Supreme Court decided important cases favoring the rights of LGBTQ individuals and the policy of allowing the “Dreamers” who were brought to the U.S. by their parents at a young age to remain in the U.S. undocumented.  Both cases provide important legal principles that could be significant in a host of litigation over climate change and the rollback of environmental protections. 

Why This Matters:  The Trump administration has been ruthless and careless in its quest to blunt the impacts of the nation’s environmental laws and rollback related policies and regulations.

• People

EPA’s Air, Water and Toxic Waste Failures Compounding Health and Safety Risks to Public

• air pollution
• conservation
• environment
• regulation
• rollbacks
• science
• toxic waste
• water pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, appeared before Congress yesterday and when asked about all the rollbacks of environmental regulations by the agency recently, he defended his leadership saying “All our rules make things better.” 

Why This Matters:  It is patently clear that EPA is making things better for corporate polluters, not ordinary citizens who are negatively impacted by them.