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Also see: Environment; coal; energy; stream
protection rule; climate change; Clean Water Act; fuel economy; carbon capture;
fuel economy;
Editorial note: During the early to mid-20th Century, the village of
Hibbing, Minnesota opted to use the beautiful East Swan River for a sewage dump,
since that was the least expensive option for getting rid of human waste from
the growing village. That
river flowed south through farming communities, emptying into the St.
Louis River which flows into Lake Superior. Farmers all along both rivers at the
time (not
to mention properties at Lake Superior itself) used the flow as a valuable source of water for themselves and their livestock, for bathing, washing clothes, swimming, for
irrigation into fields and gardens, and some struggled through the filthy waters
to float logs down to the Cloquet, Minnesota paper mills. The water was heavily
fouled with the stench of urine and fecal matter from thousands of people living
in and around the Hibbing area, resulting in a local nickname for the river of "Sh*t
Creek".
Iron mines also used the river, dumping millions
of tons of iron ore tailings into the water. After Hibbing had to cease dumping
sewage in 1939, the river was still polluted because of the mines, and was a
deep red ore color, turning the flesh of fish a red-orange and making them
inedible.
The idea of regularly and purposely polluting any American stream for any reason is
in the editor's estimation reprehensible (except of course during emergency). Today due to State legal restrictions against polluters, the East
Swan River is rather back to its natural state.
All of America needs control over corporate and untoward public interests to
prevent ruination as of the East Swan in the 1900s. No river, no community,
should suffer polluted waters due to lack of controls. Since some states
have little funding for non-urgent issues, Federal control and funding
assistance seems to be the only
good answer to aim for pure environment in all communities, ensuring that even
the poorest areas can comply.
March 28: Part of Trump's executive order [the
Major rollback on climate rules] will require the EPA to rewrite
one of the key parts of Obama's agenda, the
Clean Power Plan.
The Clean Power Plan, signed into law by Obama in August 2015, set the ambitious
goal of requiring a 32 percent reduction in
greenhouse gases emitted by existing power plants from 2005 levels by 2030.
Upon signing it, Obama called it the "the biggest, most important step we have
ever taken to combat climate change."
March 29:
Undoing the Clean Power Plan Will Be a Legal Nightmare ...
Donald Trump can’t erase Barack Obama's signature climate
achievement with the stroke of a pen.
Framing it as a lifeline to coal jobs, Trump said, “We’re ending the theft of
American prosperity.” ... Even coal industry executives doubt that the order
will lead to many new jobs.
But while Trump can overturn
Obama’s orders, he can’t erase his signature climate achievement with the
stroke of a pen. When it comes to the Clean Power Plan, Trump’s words are
“legally not all that relevant,” said Ben Longstreth, a senior attorney at the
National Resources Defense Council, because its powers are vested in Pruitt. And
for Pruitt, undoing the Clean Power Plan will mean tackling a legal task so
fraught and head-spinning that it contributed to the administration
delaying this order for weeks.
https://newrepublic.com/article/141686/undoing-clean-power-plan-will-legal-nightmare
July 4: Trump's alarming environmental
rollback: what's been scrapped so far
October 9: The decision by the head of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revoke the Clean
Power Plan – our only nationwide limits on carbon pollution from power
plants – is Scott Pruitt’s latest reprehensible effort to tear down America’s
public health and environmental safeguards.
The proposed rule Pruitt signed today, if implemented, would put an end to a
flexible and cost-effective Obama-era program to reduce unchecked carbon
pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants – measures that would prevent
thousands of deaths and many more childhood asthma attacks while reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
[Pruitt's] campaigns and political organizations received extensive
contributions from Clean Power Plan opponents, including $25,000 from coal
company Murray Energy just one month before the Clean Power Plan oral argument
before a federal appeals court in June 2016.
October 16: Why Trump's Plan to Repeal the
Clean Power Plan Isn't Catastrophic ... The Trump administration's attempt to
undo climate regulations won't have a big impact on U.S. emissions and won't
revive the coal industry.
https://psmag.com/environment/the-silver-lining-of-trumps-cpp-repeal
November 28: Clean Power Plan Is Ripping
Coal Country Down The Middle
Witnesses gave dueling testimony today before U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, typifying the divide that is now ripping apart this country: One set
said that the Clean Power Plan will catapult the country forward while another
group took aim at that position, saying that the proposed regulation has helped
kill America’s economic engine and especially the way of life in coal country.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2017/11/28/clean-power-plan-is-ripping-coal-country-down-the-middle/#77cad9c52e62
December 18: Trump’s EPA Starts Process for
Replacing Clean Power Plan ...
The Clean Power Plan was the Obama administration’s key climate change policy
for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will ask the public
for input on how to replace the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration's key
regulation aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
A repeal proposal is expected to be finalized this year. The Administration has
also signaled that a potential replacement rule is in the works, which could
pose significantly less, or at least different, burdens on regulated industry.
https://synergyenvinc.com/news/2018-outlook-clean-power-plan/
February 7: The Latest on WOTUS and the
Clean Power Plan
On Feb. 6, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (Corps)
published a final rule adding an applicability date of Feb. 6, 2020 to the
2015 rule defining "waters of the United States" (WOTUS).
As explained in the EPA and Corps’
press release, the agencies finalized the rule in order to provide the
regulated community clarity and certainty about which definition of WOTUS is
applicable nationwide. The action comes in response to a
U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that the courts of appeals do not have
original jurisdiction to review challenges to the 2015 rule, invalidating the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s
2015 nationwide stay of the WOTUS rule.
February 20: A bipartisan group of city
leader known as the
Climate Mayors released a joint letter today imploring the EPA not to repeal
the
Clean Power Plan, a move they warn would damage public health, clean air
initiatives, and efforts to combat climate change.
The group of civic leader, 233 mayors from 46 states and territories
representing 51 million Americans, released the joint letter, set to coincide
with an EPA listening session set to take place tomorrow in Kansas City,
Missouri. Mayors from Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York,
San Francisco, along with hundreds of others, have signed the letter.
https://www.curbed.com/2018/2/20/17031844/clean-power-plan-mayors-epa-climate-change
March 5: Trump energy plan is a climate
changer ... U.S. should sell carbon capture technology, secure energy
independence
Mr. Trump has
recognized America has a thousand years of energy under its feet and has spoken
the words which forces the Left to cover their ears in horror: Drill baby drill.
In Mr. Trump’s
mind, and rightfully so, energy independence is a national security priority.
Threat Assessment feels the same way and will continue to add to the discussion
in this critical area for our country’s future.
The most refreshing change has been
Mr. Trump’s
embrace of clean coal and associated technologies, to the delight of coal miners
in West Virginia and elsewhere. If the Middle East has oil, America has coal — a
lot of it. According to the Energy Information Agency, as of Jan. 1, 2017, the
U.S. had 476 billion short tons of coal, or roughly a quarter of the world’s
proven coal reserves.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/5/trump-energy-plan-climate-changer-clean-coal/
August 21: Trump’s “Affordable Clean Energy”
Plan Won’t Save Coal
The Clean Power Plan replacement doesn’t change the economic headwinds hobbling
coal power
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-affordable-clean-energy-plan-wont-save-coal/ -- 2019 --
Back to top Undated: We are not holding our breath that
President Trump will start backing up his administration’s environmental agenda
with scientific facts. But we are holding him accountable for what he says.
President Trump’s torrent of misleading statements and flat-out lies has an army
of journalists working 24/7 to set the record straight. To help those who focus,
as we do, on climate, energy, and other environmental issues, NRDC will call out
Trump whenever he distorts the facts about such matters. Here, we offer our
inaugural edition of Trump Lies. We expect to update it regularly. https://www.nrdc.org/trump-lies -- 2020 --
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