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UPDATE: The Destruction of the EPA Presses Dangerously Forward
In late August, Smart Dissent discussed the destruction of the Environmental Protection Agency occurring behind closed door which will endanger our world forever. Please read that post and then this one.
Trump and the Republican Party are so dangerous right now because terrible things are occurring without anyone realizing it. The television news and much of the print media are endlessly distracted with the big headlines. While a common refrain is that Trump is being blocked from most of his policies, that is simply not the case.
Here are two additional examples that are contributing to the destruction of our planet and society.
Environmental Protection Agency has taken the unusual step of putting a political operative in charge of vetting the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants the EPA distributes annually, assigning final funding decisions to a former Trump campaign aide with little environmental policy experience.
Yes, you read that correctly. Why did this happen? So that Scott Pruitt can make sure the EPA doesn't spend time and money on the Environment. Remember, Pruitt wants to dismantle the EPA.
John Konkus reviews every award the agency gives out, along with every grant solicitation before it is issued. According to both career and political employees, Konkus has told staff that he is on the lookout for “the double C-word” — climate change — and repeatedly has instructed grant officers to eliminate references to the subject in solicitations.
Konkus, who officially works in the EPA’s public affairs office, has canceled close to $2 million competitively awarded to universities and nonprofit organizations. Konkus has nixed funding for nearly a half-dozen projects to date, including a Bush-era program to address indoor air pollution, a project to protect watersheds in Central and Eastern Europe, and a one-day training session in Flint, Mich., to help residents eradicate bedbugs.
The ideological shift is a clear break from the practices of previous Republican and Democratic administrations. It bears the hallmarks not just of Pruitt’s tenure but of President Trump’s, reflecting skepticism of climate science, advocacy groups and academia.
If the above wasn't enough for one week of Pruitt's EPA destruction, there's more and it's awful....hundreds of EPA workers are leaving.
Nearly 400 workers have left the Environmental Protection Agency in recent days, the agency said Tuesday, a wave of departures that soon could take the agency’s staffing to its lowest point in almost 30 years.
Some of the agency’s critics among employee groups and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are skeptical of the agency’s ability to meet its regulatory responsibilities as it shrinks.... criminal cases opened and won by the agency have slowed as its staff has shrunk. The EPA’s criminal investigation division has lost more than half its special agents since 2003, and has only three-fourths of the 200 agents required by law...
Sources:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hundreds-of-epa-workers-leave-in-recent-days-1504660207