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Trump Uses COVID-19 To Eliminate Environmental Protections (We're Serious)
Trump signed an executive order last Thursday to waive requirements of many crucial environmental laws, claiming it was necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump is directing federal agencies to bypass requirements of some of the country's most significant environmental laws.... directs federal agencies to look for ways to avoid time-consuming processes and build transportation and energy infrastructure, including highways, oil and gas pipelines, and fossil fuel export terminals.
... Trump is using the cover of the pandemic to weaken environmental laws he's long opposed. His administration already has proposed speeding up NEPA reviews that he has called "outrageously slow and burdensome." And there have been dozens of proposals to roll back a wide range of environmental regulations.
Yes, you read that right. Republicans are using a global pandemic as a cover to accomplish longstanding goals to gut environmental regulations that product all of us.
Usually big projects like these require long approval processes under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Nixon signed NEPA into law in 1970. It requires agencies to examine the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and consider alternatives.
It also gives people a chance to see how a project might affect them and weigh in on what decision the government should make. If a project affects an endangered animal or plant the Endangered Species Act might also be involved.
Trump is now directing agencies to look for ways to work around these laws.
Sickening. Literally.
Some environmentalists say the order appears to be so broad that it may be unlawful. That means that, like past directives, this one could end up in court.
"Instead of trying to ease the pain of a nation in crisis, Trump is focused on easing the pain of polluters," said Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who now heads the Natural Resources Defense Council. She called the order an abuse of emergency powers and said eliminating environmental reviews is "utterly senseless".