Tag: Trump EPA

Controversial St. Croix refinery ceases operations given ‘extreme financial constraints’

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Limetree Bay Refining, facing tens of millions of unpaid bills and multiple class-action lawsuits, leaves the island with an uncertain future

Limetree Bay, a massive oil refinery in the Caribbean, announced Monday that it is ceasing operations following a number of catastrophic errors that rained oil droplets on St. Croix, sent residents to emergency rooms after noxious gas releases and raised fears among homeowners that their drinking water was laced with toxic chemicals.

The plant, which had closed a decade ago under a previous owner after toxic spills helped push it into bankruptcy, was plagued with problems from the start after the Trump administration granted it permission to reopen in February.

“Limetree had a very high rate of environmental violations over a very short period of time,” said Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency official who monitored the plant under the Obama administration. “It was an environmental catastrophe unfolding in real time.” Continue reading.

Trump administration sidelined experts in writing car pollution rules, EPA watchdog finds

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Inspector general’s report may give Biden more reason to tighten fuel-economy standards in fight against global warming

The Trump administration sidelined career staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency when weakening pollution rules for new passenger vehicles, according to a federal watchdog report.

The EPA’s inspector general found top political leaders at the agency failed to properly document and consider the concerns of staff experts while unwinding standards for tailpipe emissions set under President Barack Obama.

The report, released Tuesday, may provide fresh fodder for the Biden administration to tighten mileage and greenhouse gas standards for new automobiles as part of a broader effort to phase out internal-combustion engines and drastically cut the nation’s climate-warming emissions. Continue reading.

Minnesota AG joins lawsuit challenging rule curtailing environmental review

Minnesota is joining a coalition of 22 states, territories and local governments in a lawsuit that challenges a rule that scales back environmental review of federal actions under the National Environmental Policy Act, Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Saturday.

According to a news release from Ellison’s office, the lawsuit alleges that the new final rule “abandons informed decision making” and limits the public’s ability to weigh in on actions that are likely to affect the environment, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and NEPA.

The Trump administration’s Council on Environmental Quality published the new final rule on July 16, and it is set to go into effect on Sept. 14. Continue reading.

EPA chief’s former lobbying clients are getting a long list of favors from agency

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At least three former lobbying clients of Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler have received favorable decisions from the EPA under his leadership.

Wheeler spent years as an energy lobbyist at the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels, where he represented companies like the coal giant Murray Energy, whose owner Robert Murray is a major Trump donor. Wheeler signed a pledge in May 2018 to recuse himself from matters related to former clients after he replaced embattled former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. But the two-year pledge expired earlier this year and he has been repeatedly accused of violating the agreement by approving rules that he lobbied for as a lobbyist for Murray Energy and others.

At least three of Wheeler’s former clients have pushed for rules that the EPA has proposed or implemented under his leadership. Continue reading.

US Drops Planned Limit for Toxin That Damages Infant Brains

The Trump administration has rejected imposing federal drinking-water limits for a chemical used in fireworks and other explosives and linked to brain damage in newborns.

The Trump administration on Thursday rejected imposing federal drinking-water limits for a chemical used in fireworks and other explosives and linked to brain damage in newborns, opting to override Obama administration findings that the neurotoxin was contaminating the drinking water of millions of Americans.

The contaminant is perchlorate, a component in rocket fuel, ammunition and other explosives, including fireworks. The Associated Press found one high-profile example of that on Thursday, reviewing a 2016 U.S. Geological Survey report that ties high levels of perchlorate contamination in the water at Mount Rushmore national memorial in South Dakota with past years of fireworks displays there.

While officials stopped the fireworks shows at the Black Hills memorial a decade ago, the pyrotechnics are scheduled to resume this Independence Day holiday at the urging of President Donald Trump, who plans to attend the festivities on July 3. Continue reading.

Add to list EPA limits states and tribes’ ability to protest pipelines and other energy projects

Washington Post logoThe move changes the way the Clean Water Act has been applied for half a century.

The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Monday curtailing the rights of states, tribes and the public to object to federal permits for energy projects and other activities that could pollute waterways across the country.

The move, part of the Trump administration’s push to weaken environmental rules it sees as standing in the way of new development, upends how the United States applied a section of the Clean Water Act for nearly a half century. The energy industry hailed the change as a way to speed up pipelines and other projects, while environmentalists warned it could undercut state and tribal efforts to safeguard rivers and drinking water.

The new rule would set a one-year deadline for states and tribes to certify or reject proposed projects — including pipelines, hydroelectric dams and industrial plants — that could discharge pollution into area waterways. It also would limit any reviews to include only water quality impacts, based on a more narrow definition the Trump administration finalized last year. Continue reading.

EPA chief faces panel amid criticism of regulatory rollbacks

Democrats worry the agency is easing air, water pollution rules in a ‘pandemic of pollution’

Members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will question EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday as his agency faces legal challenges and mounting criticism for easing enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The EPA is among federal agencies that have issued a flurry of regulations and rules during the pandemic, a pattern legal experts have said may be intended to avoid the reach of a law that allows Congress to strike down regulations shortly after they are finalized.

Last week, nine state attorneys general sued the EPA for issuing what they called a “broad, open-ended policy,” referring to the agency’s March 26 decision to allow companies to determine for themselves if they can meet reporting requirements for air and water pollution during the crisis. Continue reading.

EPA staff warned that mileage rollbacks had flaws. Trump officials ignored them.

Washington Post logoIn its rush to roll back the most significant climate policy enacted by President Barack Obama — mileage standards designed to reduce pollution from cars — the Trump administration ignored warnings that its new rule has serious flaws, according to documents shared with The Washington Post.

The behind-the-scenes skirmish in late March between career employees and Trump appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency highlights the extent to which Trump officials are racing to reverse environmental policies by the end of the president’s first term.

Even as the coronavirus outbreak has hampered many government operations, the administration is pressing ahead with the rollback of a bedrock environmental law governing federal permits and working to open more public lands to oil and gas drilling. In recent weeks, the EPA has opted not to set stricter national air quality standards, and it is poised to defy a court order requiring that it limit a chemical found in drinking water that has been linked to neurological damage in babies. The agency soon plans to finalize a change to the Clean Water Act that would restrict the ability of states, tribes and the public to block federal approval for pipelines and some other energy-related projects. Continue reading.

4 Ways the Trump Administration Has Made Our Air Dirtier During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Center for American Progress logoWhile the novel coronavirus has raged across the United States, infecting more than 1 million Americans, the Trump administration has failed catastrophically in their efforts to protect the public. One of these myriad failures has come in the form of continued rollbacks of critical protections for clean air across the country.

In the last month alone, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), headed by former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, has undone, failed to strengthen, or otherwise weakened four separate safeguards against air pollution. This is despite the fact that emerging research shows that populations living in areas with high air pollution—which, thanks to decades of environmental racism, predominantly include low-income communities, Native communities, and communities of color—may have a statistically higher mortality rate if infected with COVID-19.

The Trump administration is failing Americans in a time of great need. Tens of thousands of people across the country have already died. Instead of stepping up and taking necessary actions such as ramping up testing, producing or acquiring additional personal protective equipment for health workers, or even effectively communicating and coordinating across federal agencies, the Trump administration is using its limited energy and resources to roll back critical public health and environmental protections. This is an obscene abdication of responsibility during a crisis and further exposes this administration’s efforts to put polluters before the needs of the American people. Continue reading.

Add to list EPA overhauls mercury pollution rule, despite opposition from industry and activists alike

Washington Post logoThe changes could revamp the math on how the government values human health.

The Environmental Protection Agency changed the way the federal government calculates the costs and benefits of dangerous air pollutants, a shift that could restrict the ability of regulators to control toxins in the future.

The move announced Thursday, one in a series of actions taken by the Trump administration that experts say will probably increase air pollution, comes as the nation is fighting a deadly respiratory virus.

In its controversial decision, the EPA declared that it is not “appropriate and necessary” for the government to limit mercury and other harmful pollutants from power plants, even though every utility in America has complied with standards put in place in 2011 under President Barack Obama.