In late August, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced an extension of the public comment period for a proposal to recodify a pre-existing rule defining the scope of waters of the United States. The recodification is an interim step in a process intending to write a new definition for the term "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS). (EPA Rulemaking Process). The comment period, which was originally scheduled to end on August 28, 2017, is now extended 30 days and will end on September 27. (Federal Register 8/22/17). In a separate, but related matter, EPA has also announced a ...
Attorneys General for eleven states filed a challenge in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking to vacate a recently announced 2-year delay in implementation of chemical safety rules. (Reuters). EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt initially announced a delay in the rule in March and then promulgated a rule modification announced in June which provides that the rule will not become effective before February, 2019. (The Hill). In the interim, the Agency will assess the rule's potential impact on businesses.
The rule was finalized at the end of the Obama ...
Last Thursday, National Public Radio reported on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which offers evidence that air pollution continues to kill thousands in the United States every year. (NPR). An abstract can be viewed at the New England Journal of Medicine website here.
The study, conducted by a team from Harvard's T. H. Chan School of Public Health, concludes that approximately 12,000 lives could be saved every year by reducing the emission level of fine particulate matter by 1 microgram per cubic meter of air below current U.S. standards. While air quality has ...
President Trump is expected to announce this afternoon his decision whether to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. (Reuters) Several news sources yesterday indicated that President Trump has decided to withdraw. (The Hill, Reuters). The expected decision follows a significant public and private lobbying effort attempting to persuade the President's thinking on the issue. (N. Y. Times).
While much of the initial intrigue may involve speculation regarding the President's motivation and what this may mean for the relative influence of different advisors ...
While the Trump Administration has taken steps to dismantle or revise many of the Obama Administration's actions regarding climate change, there are conflicting opinions within the Administration and key businesses about the issue, the appropriate steps to take, and the consequences.
For example, Defense Secretary Mattis has made clear his view that climate change is real and that it will have a significant impact on U.S. military operations if preparatory actions are not taken. (Science Magazine: Defense Chief Cites Climate Change National Security Challenge). We noted in ...
The past week was not a good one for the cause of science as it relates to environmental issues and may foreshadow what might be described as an Age of Un-enlightenment.
The initial focus was on climate change. On the one hand, President Trump issued an Executive Order seeking to undo much of the Obama Administration's actions related to climate change. (March 28 Executive Order). This occurred even as the Chairman of the House Science Committee, and the Administrator of EPA acknowledged that the climate is changing and that humans play a role in that change. (House Hearing on Climate ...
President Trump has proposed a dramatic cut in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, the new EPA Administrator has suggested rollbacks in regulations, and there are even proposals to abolish the Agency entirely. Regardless of what eventually happens, changes are afoot, and they are likely to be significant.
At the outset, it's probably worth noting that, although there have been calls for the abolition of EPA, including at least one recently filed bill in the U.S. House that would do just that and shift responsibilities to other agencies (Pensacola News Journal), that ...
By almost every account, the Trump Administration is likely to alter substantially the environmental regulatory landscape. Actions have already been taken to delay the implementation of regulations as well as initiating policy changes that will likely affect the size of the Environmental Protection Agency and its budget, possibly including the portion used to provide grants to States and localities for environmental enforcement and compliance efforts. There are also already indications of change in general policy, both at the domestic level and internationally. And ...
On December 20, 2016, Michigan's Attorney General announced additional indictments in the Flint water crisis. The indictments against two former emergency managers and two former City of Flint executives bring to 13 the number of individuals who have been criminally charged in the fallout from a decision in 2014 to separate the City from its historic water supply source, the City of Detroit, and to begin supplying drinking water from the Flint River (N.Y. Times).
The charges are detailed, along with some history, in a press release from Attorney General Bill Schuette's office (AG ...
A recent article in The New York Times titled: Perils of Climate Change Could Swamp Coast Real Estate, indicates that rising seas and storm-related flooding in Florida appear to be driven by climate change and may be having direct impacts on the coastal real estate market (NYT Coastal Real Estate). Acknowledging that the incoming Trump administration has given new life to doubts about climate change, the article notes some actual changes in coastal areas due to sea levels and the impact of storms on local flooding not for the fact the conditions have occurred, but for the impact of the ...