• 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.

• Sustainability

The EPA Plans to Waive Rules Due to Coronavirus – Putting Polluters Ahead of People

• coronavirus
• oil and gas
• regulatory relief
• rule rollbacks
• toxic waste

As a result of the economic hardship caused by the coronavirus, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump Administration plans to waive or loosen health, safety and environmental regulations governing a variety of industries including oil refiners, water utilities and sewage plants. 

Why This Matters: To borrow a phrase from the President, his planned economic “cure” for the virus may be worse than the disease.

• Land

Supreme Court Hears Superfund Case — Seems To Lean Toward Limiting Polluter’s Liability

• Environmental Justice
• Superfund
• toxic waste

The Supreme Court heard oral argument yesterday in a case brought by a group of Montana landowners who want to force ARCO (which is owned by oil giant BP) to comply with state law and reduce arsenic levels in the soil throughout their community to pre-contamination levels.  The Justices — even the liberal ones — appeared to side with the Company.

Why This Matters:  When the EPA cares more about protecting a polluting company and limiting its liability than protecting the innocent victims of that toxic pollution from harm, federal “pre-emption” of state law claims can actually frustrate the intent of the statute — which was to make the polluters pay for the clean up of their toxic contamination.

• Politics

Possible Detention Center for Migrant Children on Texas AF Base Is Contaminated

• air force
• border wall
• Chemicals
• Earthjustice
• emergency
• EPA
• Goodfellows Air Force Base
• Superfund
• Texas
• toxic waste

Reuters reported yesterday that the Trump Administration had planned to open a new detention center at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas to house up to 7,500 unaccompanied migrant children, but the site may not be safe.  Earthjustice issued a report yesterday in which it raised concerns with this site because the organization has identified fouSuperfund sites on base in proximity to the proposed housing site, including a former landfill, artillery range, fuel depot, and fire training areas. While some areas have been cleaned up not all have been remediated, thus Earthjustice argues in the report that more extensive testing is warranted to ensure the site is safe because the clean up may not have been sufficient to house children there.

• Land

A Brief History of the Environmental Justice Movement

• civil rights
• Environmental Justice
• Green New Deal
• landfill
• march
• PCBs
• protest
• toxic waste

Many consider the street protests and legal challenges brought by the overwhelmingly poor and minority residents of rural Afton, in Warren County, North Carolina in 1982 to be the first major milestone in the national movement for environmental justice because they drew sustained media coverage and grabbed national attention.

• Health

NYT Exposé: Health Risks on the Rise Due to Regulatory Rollbacks

• air
• air pollution
• benzene
• cancer
• carbon dioxide
• coal power plants
• Farm Workers
• fossil fuels
• health
• methane
• Native Americans
• oil and gas drilling
• pesticides
• regulations
• rivers
• sickened
• toxic chemicals
• toxic waste
• water pollution

The New York Times investigated and found that the consequences of the President keeping his promise to deregulate in favor of industry and development, particularly for fossil fuels, are beginning to have real detrimental impacts for those who live or work in proximity to them. The stories of those impacted demonstrate that the U.S. environment is not as clean as most think.