Methane flares at a fracking site near a home in Colorado on Oct. 25, 2014. WildEarth Guardians / Flickr
In the coming days, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to use its power to roll back yet another Obama-era environmental protection meant to curb air pollution and slow the climate crisis.
<p>This new rollback concerns <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/methane" target="_self">methane</a>, a potent greenhouse gas destructive to the earth's atmosphere. The EPA is expected to make the announcement on Friday that it is ending a stricture put in place by the previous administration that curbed the amount of methane that could be released in oil and gas exploration, as <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-to-rescind-methane-regulations-for-oil-and-gas-11597051802" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported.</p><p>Since the rule is not official yet, anonymous officials at the agency told The Wall Street Journal that the rollback will scrap the new rules that required oil and gas producers to have systems, checks and processes in place to identify and address methane leaks on their rigs.</p>
<p>The rollbacks do not end there. The Wall Street Journal also reported that the EPA will also end its oversight of ozone pollutants and emissions from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self">pipelines</a> and storage sites. Additionally, the agency will reduce its requirement for monitoring and reporting certain pollutants.</p><p>The EPA's decision to end its oversight and slacken regulation may result in an additional 5 million metric tons of methane pollution released into the atmosphere each year.</p><p>Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that can be 25 times more impactful than carbon dioxide in equal quantities, as <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/511298-epa-to-issue-methane-rollback-this-week-report" target="_blank">The Hill</a> reported. In 2018, it accounted for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity, mostly from the oil and gas industry, although commercial agriculture and the cattle industry are also large contributors to methane emissions.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/trump-epa-reportedly-moving-forward-eliminate-key-federal-methane-protections" target="_blank">Environmental Defense Fund</a> (EDF) noted, the action would also mean no future action could regulate methane production from oil and gas facilities built before 2015. Their analysis shows that 9.3 million people live within half a mile of one of the older wells that the administration is seeking to leave forever unregulated by the EPA.</p><p>"Our federal methane safeguards have been in place since 2016, protecting Americans from unhealthy and climate-damaging pollution. The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration's decision to reverse course is deeply and fundamentally flawed," said EDF lead attorney Peter Zalzal, in a <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/trump-epa-reportedly-moving-forward-eliminate-key-federal-methane-protections" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Eliminating these safeguards would ignore the overwhelming body of scientific evidence documenting the urgent need to reduce methane pollution. And it is also starkly at odds with the broad and diverse set of stakeholders — including some major oil and gas producing companies — that support retaining and strengthening methane safeguards."</p>
<p>The administration is using the decline in demand for oil and gas as a justification for easing the pollution rules. It argues that the rule is needed to free the oil and gas industry from what it calls crippling regulations during an economic slowdown due to the novel coronavirus. However, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/climate/trump-methane-climate-change.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> notes, the weakening of the rule has been in the works for more than a year.</p><p>As The New York Times noted, several of the world's major fossil fuel companies actually support the methane rules and do not want to see them relaxed. In a 2019 public comment on a draft of the rule, Joe Ellis, a vice president at BP, urged the EPA "to continue to regulate methane emissions from new sources and to adopt a rule for existing sources. EPA regulation of methane across the value chain is the right thing to do for the environment, will support consistent regulation across the U.S. and can be cost-effectively achieved with new technology."</p><p>Furthermore, Exxon urged the EPA in 2018 to maintain core elements of the Obama administration's policy. And Gretchen Watkins, the U.S. chairwoman for Shell, which has urged the Trump administration to regulate methane emissions, said, "The negative impacts of methane have been widely acknowledged for years, so it's frustrating and disappointing to see the administration go in a different direction," as The New York Times reported.</p>
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U.S. Coronavirus Cases Surpass 5 Million, Only 17 Days After Hitting 4 Million
10 August
Health + Wellness
Medics with Austin-Travis County EMS transport a nursing home resident with coronavirus symptoms on Aug. 3, 2020 in Austin, Texas. John Moore / Getty Images
The U.S. passed five million coronavirus cases on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, just 17 days after it hit the four-million case mark.
<p>The number means the U.S. now has more confirmed coronavirus cases than Ireland and Alabama have people, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/09/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html" target="_blank">CNN pointed out</a>.</p><p>"This is such a sobering number," Vanderbilt University infectious disease professor Dr. William Schaffner told CNN. "That's a huge number of cases and a very large number of hospitalizations and deaths — and more to come. Because over much of this country, this virus is spreading unimpeded because so many folks are not getting with the program to contain it."</p>
<div id="90895" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fcbe6d202c937d5a692acf1d24d955ac"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1292590334577381376" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">It took:
- 99 days to get to 1 million cases
- 43 more days to reach 2 million
- 28 more days to reach 3 million… https://t.co/nBBhEo7ZE3</div> — Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈)<a href="https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/statuses/1292590334577381376">1597012525.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The U.S. continues to lead the world with both cases and deaths. It accounts for about a quarter of global cases and 22 percent of global fatalities, according to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/08/09/900640397/u-s-hits-5-million-coronavirus-cases-as-debate-lingers-over-the-path-forward" target="_blank">NPR</a>. The country has seen 162,938 deaths so far, according to Monday morning figures from <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">Johns Hopkins University</a>. The next hardest-hit country, Brazil, has confirmed more than three million cases and 100,000 deaths.</p><p>The U.S. response to the virus has been marked by President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a>'s <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-infections-trump-2645393552.html" target="_self">repeated dismissals</a> of the severity of the new disease, pushing of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-coronavirus-medicine-science-2645823308.html" target="_self">unproven treatments</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/doctor-bright-coronavirus-trump-drug-2645811981.html" target="_self">clashes</a> with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a> experts, <a href="https://apnews.com/2a03a4e685316eb7d5a6e7181000fbfe" target="_blank">The Associated Press pointed out</a>.</p><p>This has diminished the image of the U.S. in Europe, where officials are surprised the country could not manage to curb the outbreak despite having more preparation time before the disease began to spread rapidly on U.S. soil.</p><p>"We Italians always saw America as a model," Corriere della Sera columnist Massimo Franco said, according to The Associated Press. "But with this virus we've discovered a country that is very fragile, with bad infrastructure and a public health system that is nonexistent."</p>
<p>The U.S. is currently reporting around 54,000 cases a day. That is down from a mid-July peak of 75,697, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/world/coronavirus-updates.html#link-697eb3e1" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. Still, cases are increasing in almost 20 states, according to The Associated Press, and deaths are increasing in most.</p><p>On a national level, the U.S. has reported more than 1,000 deaths a day for the last five days, and has only reported fewer than 1,000 deaths on four days since July 21.</p><p>More than 40 percent of U.S. cases have been reported in just five states: California, Florida, Texas, New York and Georgia.</p>
<p>New York, however, which was an early epicenter of the outbreak, has largely gotten the disease under control. Its Saturday positivity rate — the rate of positive results out of total coronavirus tests — was 0.78 percent, the lowest since the pandemic started.</p><p>"Our daily numbers remain low and steady, despite increasing infection rates across the country, and even in our region — and we had the lowest one-day positive rate since we started," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement reported by CNN. "That's an incredible achievement, all thanks to the hard work of New Yorkers."</p><p>The other states have not been so successful. Florida reported more than 6,000 new cases for the 13th day in a row Sunday and Texas reported its highest ever seven-day positivity rate, at 19.41 percent.</p><p>The states with the most new cases compared to their populations in the past week were Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, The New York Times reported.</p><p>Meanwhile, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicted the U.S. would see 300,000 coronavirus deaths by December, NPR reported. That would make COVID-19 the third leading cause of death in the country this year.</p>
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
The ubiquity of guns and bullets poses environmental risks. Contaminants in bullets include lead, copper, zinc, antimony and mercury. gorancakmazovic / iStock / Getty Images Plus
New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that she will attempt to dismantle the National Rifle Association (NRA), arguing that years of corruption and mismanagement warrant the dissolution of the activist organization, as CNN reported.
<p>The lawsuit specifically names the organization's top brass as corrupt and inept, accusing them of failing to follow numerous state and federal laws and mismanaging the organization so badly that it lost more than $64 million in just three years, according to a <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/attorney-general-james-files-lawsuit-dissolve-nra" target="_blank">press release</a> from James' office. James alleges that CEO Wayne LaPierre and his top lieutenants used the organization's coffers for personal gain, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nra-lapierre-ny-attorney-general/2020/08/06/8e389794-d794-11ea-930e-d88518c57dcc_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>The overwhelming influence the NRA has had on American politics has enabled gun violence to proliferate into a public health crisis, according to the <a href="https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence#:~:text=Gun%20violence%20is%20a%20leading,this%20growing%20crisis%20is%20necessary." target="_blank">American Public Health Association</a>. Furthermore, the ubiquity of guns and bullets poses environmental risks. As the <a href="https://www.theregreview.org/2018/10/08/williamson-choosing-guns-environment/" target="_blank">University of Pennsylvania</a> notes, contaminants in bullets include <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lead">lead</a>, copper, zinc, antimony and even <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mercury">mercury</a>, all of which can sink into the soil and sometimes leach into groundwater and surface water. Exposure to these contaminants through the soil or water can lead to illness and possibly death for those who spend significant amounts of time in contaminated areas.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/899712823/new-york-attorney-general-moves-to-dissolve-the-nra-after-fraud-investigation" target="_blank">NPR</a>, the maneuver to dissolve the NRA is the most aggressive sanction James could have sought against the organization, which she has jurisdiction over because has been registered as a 501(c) not-for-profit organization in New York asince 1871.</p><p>James has a wide range of authorities relating to nonprofits in the state, including the authority to force organizations to cease operations or dissolve.</p><p>"The NRA's influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets," James said in a <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/attorney-general-james-files-lawsuit-dissolve-nra" target="_blank">statement</a>. "The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law."</p>
<p>Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the NRA who received millions in salary, also used the organization's money to fund an extravagant lifestyle. The suit alleges that LaPierre used NRA money to pay a personal travel consultant $13.5 million, largely on no-bid contracts. Private flights were chartered for LaPierre's wife and his niece. He took frequent trips to the Bahamas on the NRA's dime, where he often stayed on a 108-foot yacht called "Illusions" that was owned by an NRA contractor and included a chef and four staterooms. He bought gifts from Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman from his inner circle, and once put his niece up at a Four Seasons hotel for eight nights at a cost of more than $12,000, according to the complaint, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/us/ny-nra-lawsuit-letitia-james.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=New%20York" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"Given the breadth and depth of the corruption, the illegality and the brazen attempts to evade the law," said James, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/new-york-attorney-general-letitia-james-files-lawsuit-dissolve-nra-n1236009" target="_blank">NBC News</a>, it is necessary for the NRA to shut its doors to protect members and donors.</p><p>James said the suit would be forwarded to the IRS for investigation of potential violations of tax law, according to NBC News.</p><p>"If we uncover any criminal activity, we will refer it to the Manhattan district attorney," she said. "At this point in time, we're moving forward, again, with civil enforcement."</p>
<p>Also Thursday, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine <a href="https://oag.dc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-08/NRA-Foundation-Complaint-Redacted.pdf" target="_blank">sued the NRA and the NRA Foundation</a>, its charitable arm, which is incorporated in Washington, DC, as NBC News reported. The lawsuit alleges that the NRA misused charitable funds "to support wasteful spending by the NRA and its executives," and seeks the return of money that it says was donated to the NRA Foundation but was improperly diverted to the NRA.</p><p>"Charitable organizations function as public trusts — and District law requires them to use their funds to benefit the public, not to support political campaigns, lobbying, or private interests," Racine said, as NPR reported. "With this lawsuit, we aim to recover donated funds that the NRA Foundation wasted. District nonprofits should be on notice that the Office of the Attorney General will file suit if we find evidence of illegal behavior."</p>
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President Trump signs an executive order regulating social media on May 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. Doug Mills-Pool / Getty Images
Facebook and Twitter removed posts by President Donald Trump and his campaign Wednesday for violating their policies against spreading false information about COVID-19.
<p>The offending posts both shared a link to a video in which Trump claimed that children are "almost immune" to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-trump/facebook-twitter-pull-trump-posts-over-coronavirus-misinformation-idUSKCN25136Y?fbclid=IwAR3irRfp4TbdXzi9QJPwT2zlOTR1RbPybVaYok0gNYGKamR_7jMgLkTW-q0&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. Facebook said it was the first time it had removed a post by the president for sharing coronavirus misinformation.</p><p>"This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation," Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/05/899558311/facebook-removes-trump-post-over-false-claim-about-children-and-covid-19?utm_campaign=npr&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3fI3uSsERYZnMc02kZg6EyEv43sCbTSHLz65rabasUg1LG1P2P_AhY7sc" target="_blank">NPR</a> of the social media giant's decision.</p><p>Facebook removed the post from the President's own page, while Twitter removed a post of the video shared from the Trump campaign account @TeamTrump.</p><p>"The @TeamTrump Tweet you referenced is in violation of the Twitter Rules on <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/An-update-on-our-continuity-strategy-during-COVID-19.html__;!!Iwwt!DYFZLtq_zq5IqF-xREGa5P1jGVOACsXYLdUrMDtAvCQvBg3zVAWyR3hkJME%24" target="_blank">COVID-19 misinformation</a>. The account owner will be required to<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/enforcement-options__;!!Iwwt!DYFZLtq_zq5IqF-xREGa5P1jGVOACsXYLdUrMDtAvCQvBg3zVAWyGr9epH8%24" target="_blank"> remove the Tweet</a> before they can Tweet again," Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy told NPR.</p>
<p>The campaign complied and is now tweeting again.</p><p>The video contained a clip from a Fox News interview Trump gave Wednesday morning, in which he argued for schools to reopen.</p><p>"If you look at children, children are almost — and I would almost say definitely — but almost immune from this disease," Trump told "Fox & Friends," according to a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/politics/fact-check-trump-fox-friends-pandemic-biden-protests/index.html" target="_blank">CNN fact check of the interview</a>. "They don't have a problem. They just don't have a problem."</p><p>But CNN's Daniel Dale explained why that wasn't true.</p>
<p>"While children are, on the whole, less likely to get seriously ill or die from the coronavirus than adults are, they are certainly not 'immune,'" he wrote. "Children get infected, transmit the virus, and do sometimes get seriously ill or die."</p><p>The World Health Organization found that children aged five to 14 years old made up 4.6 percent of 6 million infections between Feb. 24 and July 12, according to Reuters. A large study out of South Korea last month found that younger children were less likely to spread the virus than adults, but children aged 10 to 19 could spread it just as much, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/health/coronavirus-children-schools.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>.</p><p>White House deputy national press secretary Courtney Parella defended Trump's statement in the removed video.</p><p>"The president was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus. Another day, another display of Silicon Valley's flagrant bias against this president, where the rules are only enforced in one direction," she said in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/technology/trump-facebook-coronavirus-video.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0NldbBP1YYL71utJ9dYyuuiwvPEKfPL62ZoyZVj2VKLshwLD18sT4g5Ic" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth."</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/06/media/facebook-twitter-trump-reliable-sources/index.html" target="_blank">CNN's Oliver Darcy</a> argued that Trump's statement in the Fox interview went much further than Parella's summary. At one point in the interview, Trump said it was a fact that children were "virtually immune" from the disease, and Facebook confirmed to Darcy that this quote was featured in the removed video.</p><p>Darcy further criticized Fox News for allowing Trump's claims to air unchallenged in the first place:</p><blockquote>What is noteworthy is that the action means that — on this issue — the two tech giants have enforced higher standards on their platforms than the Murdoch family has enforced on Fox News. Whereas Twitter and Facebook removed the clip, the hosts of "Fox & Friends" didn't challenge Trump when he made the false claim on the network's air. And, Fox News — which didn't provide me a comment — played Trump's remarks to its large audience later in the day without a fact-check.</blockquote><p>The video was on Facebook for around four hours and seen almost half a million times before it was removed, The New York Times reported.</p>YouTube also told Reuters it had removed the video, but the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOWHlKM1U6E" target="_blank">full interview</a> is still available on the Fox News channel.
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A warning sign near the Dakota Access Pipeline endpoint in Patoka, Illinois on Nov. 11, 2016. Cyrene Krey / Flickr
The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline won a reprieve Wednesday when an appeals court canceled a lower court order mandating the pipeline be shut down and emptied of oil while a full environmental impact statement is completed.
<p>The shutdown order, which would have gone into effect Wednesday, marked the first time a major oil pipeline was court ordered to cease operations for environmental reasons. But while its reversal is disappointing for pipeline opponents, Wednesday's decision was not wholly favorable for the pipeline, either. The court refused to halt the initial order for a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/dakota-access-pipeline-environmental-review-2645577384.html" target="_self">new environmental review</a> of the pipeline's crossing under the Missouri River, where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fears it will pollute its <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a> and sacred lands if it leaks.</p><p>"We've been in this legal battle for four years, and we aren't giving up this fight," Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Faith said in an <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/dc-circuit-mixed-decision-dakota-access-shutdown-order?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">Earthjustice press release</a>. "As the environmental review process gets underway in the months ahead, we look forward to showing why the Dakota Access Pipeline is too dangerous to operate."</p>
<div id="e3dbb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1c6bf3b1b2ec9c26be8e6fd6776c2be"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1291118408277397505" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">But the fight isn't over! DAPL's permit to cross underneath Lake Oahe is vacated, so it's effectively operating ill… https://t.co/EOPn59siC7</div> — Earthjustice (@Earthjustice)<a href="https://twitter.com/Earthjustice/statuses/1291118408277397505">1596661591.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In its ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put the question of whether the pipeline could continue to operate without a permit back to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/dakota-access-pipeline-staves-off-shutdown-order-once-again" target="_blank">Bloomberg News reported</a>. It said it expected the Army Corps of Engineers to clarify the issue.</p><p>"It's interesting what the court did here," Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman, who represents the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told Bloomberg. "While the focus has been on this judicially imposed shutdown order, the bigger picture is the environmental impact statement and whether a permit will be reissued under the next administration."</p><p>Hasselman argued that the pipeline is now operating illegally, and, if the Army Corps of Engineers decides to let it keep running while a review is completed, the issue will return to court.</p><p>"[W]e are confident that it will be shut down eventually," he said in the press release.</p>
<p>The pipeline's owner Energy Transfer had immediately appealed the shutdown order, and the company's lawyer said it would continue with the legal process.</p><p>"We believe our legal positions are strong, and we are confident that the pipeline will continue to operate," General Counsel Tom Mason told Bloomberg.</p><p>The oil and gas industry more generally had a mixed response to Wednesday's ruling.</p><p>"The Court rightly stayed the decision to shut down and empty the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has been operating for over three years and provides millions of tax dollars to states, affordable energy to the entire region, and thousands of jobs along its route," American Petroleum Institute senior vice president and chief legal officer Paul Afonso said in a statement reported by <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510748-court-cancels-shutdown-of-dakota-access-pipeline" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. "However, the failure to uphold the easement granted years ago by the federal government exemplifies the problems with our outdated permitting system, which allows protracted challenges to advance within the courts and ultimately take away jobs, tax dollars, and investments that pipelines bring to communities that sorely need them."</p>
<p>The Dakota Access Pipeline currently carries 570,000 barrels of oil a day 1,172-miles from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. The fight against the pipeline garnered international attention through major <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a>-led <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/what-standing-rock-gave-world-2549906333.html" target="_self">protests</a> in 2016 and 2017. The Obama administration <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/army-corps-permit-dakota-access-pipeline-2128363393.html" target="_self">denied</a> the river crossing permit in late 2016, but President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-dakota-access-pipeline-2211697835.html" target="_self">pushed the project through</a> via executive order early after taking office. It has now been operating a little more than three years.</p>
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Democratic Bill Banning Toxic Pesticides Applauded as 'Much-Needed' Step to Protect Kids and Planet
05 August
Politics
Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced legislation to ban some of the most toxic pesticides currently in use in the U.S. D-Keine / E+ / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
Democrats in the House and Senate on Tuesday introduced sweeping legislation that would ban some of the most toxic pesticides currently in use in the U.S. and institute stronger protections for farmworkers and communities that have been exposed to damaging chemicals by the agriculture industry.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Protect America's Children from Toxic Pesticide Act of 2020, sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), was <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/08/04/sweeping-proposal-would-protect-kids-farmworkers-and-everyone-toxic-pesticides" target="_blank">applauded</a> by environmentalists as a "bold and much-needed" step in the right direction.</p><p>"The pesticide industry and chemical agriculture have for far too long been able to abuse legal loopholes allowing for the use of toxic pesticides that have not been adequately tested to make sure they are safe for people and the environment," <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/08/04/sweeping-proposal-would-protect-kids-farmworkers-and-everyone-toxic-pesticides" target="_blank">said</a> Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group. "The Udall-Neguse plan will rein in this largely unchecked explosion of pesticide use by agriculture and give the EPA much stronger authority to protect the public."</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://neguse.house.gov/media/press-releases/neguse-udall-introduce-landmark-pesticide-reform-to-protect-children-farmworkers-and-consumers-from-toxic-pesticides" target="_blank">summary</a> of the bill released by Neguse's office, the legislation would ban:</p><ul><li>Organophosphate insecticides, which are designed to target the neurological system and have been linked to neurodevelopmental damage in children;</li><li><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/neonicotinoids">Neonicotinoid</a> insecticides, which have contributed to pollinator collapse around the world; and</li><li>Paraquat, which is one of the most acutely toxic herbicides in the world.</li></ul>
<p>If passed, the bill would end the use of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/19/total-disgrace-outrage-trump-epa-says-it-wont-ban-pesticide-linked-brain-damage" target="_blank">chlorpyrifos</a>, an organophosphate pesticide linked to brain damage in children. Last July, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/19/total-disgrace-outrage-trump-epa-says-it-wont-ban-pesticide-linked-brain-damage" target="_blank">reported</a>, President Donald <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a>'s Environmental Protection Agency rejected a petition by environmental and public health groups to ban chlorpyrifos <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/07/18/epa-will-not-ban-use-controversial-pesticide-linked-childrens-health-problems/" target="_blank">despite evidence</a> of the pesticide's neurotoxic effects.</p><p>"Our nation's pesticide laws have not kept up to keep us safe," Udall said in a <a href="https://neguse.house.gov/media/press-releases/neguse-udall-introduce-landmark-pesticide-reform-to-protect-children-farmworkers-and-consumers-from-toxic-pesticides" target="_blank">statement</a>. "The United States sprays a total of over a billion pounds of pesticides each year on the food we feed to our children, exposing them to dangerous chemicals linked to brain damage and diseases like Parkinson's."</p><p>"It is long past time for the United States Congress to turn attention to this issue," Udall added, "and put the health and safety of our families above the profits of large corporations."</p>
<div id="2d54c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4007f312b8e16fd98602a90f340a5032"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290678924201152515" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Today we are introducing the Protect America’s Children From Toxic Pesticides Act, #PACTPA. This is a bill to prote… https://t.co/B24L1YUHEe</div> — Tom Udall (@Tom Udall)<a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorTomUdall/statuses/1290678924201152515">1596556809.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Daniel Savery, senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, said in a <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/lawmakers-aim-to-ban-brain-damaging-pesticides-with-new-bill" target="_blank">statement</a> that the the Udall-Neguse bill "says what we all know to be true: that nerve agents have no place on our food, in our workplaces, and in our communities."</p><p>"Earthjustice is grateful for the leadership of Senator Udall and Representative Neguse," said Savery, "and we stand with our farmworker partners in support of this bill."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/04/democratic-bill-banning-toxic-pesticides-us-applauded-much-needed-step-protect-kids" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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President Trump displays his signature after signing The Great American Outdoors Act on August 4, 2020. The White House
The Great American Outdoors Act is now the law of the land.
<p>President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> signed the bill, which passed the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-american-outdoors-act-conservation-2646197665.html" target="_self">Senate</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-american-outdoors-act-2646574786.html" target="_self">House</a> with bipartisan support, on Tuesday. It is considered a major U.S. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> milestone.</p><p>"You cannot overstate the importance of this bill and what it will mean for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-parks" target="_self">national parks</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands" target="_self">public lands</a> and communities across the country," <a href="https://www.npca.org/" target="_blank">National Parks Conservation Association</a> (NPCA) President and CEO Theresa Pierno <a href="https://www.npca.org/articles/2618-npca-celebrates-park-victory-decades-in-the-making" target="_blank">said</a> when it passed the House in July. "This is the largest investment our country has made in our national parks and public lands in more than 50 years, and it comes not a moment too soon."</p>
<div id="e0008" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ffc07febbf5d2d585ad06d3f43e2be56"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1290667833999929344" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">🚨Breaking News: The President has just signed the bipartisan #GreatAmericanOutdoorsAct. It will help: 🏗️ Restore… https://t.co/RPefKPMn7S</div> — Fix Our Parks (@Fix Our Parks)<a href="https://twitter.com/FixOurParksUS/statuses/1290667833999929344">1596554165.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The bill is important because it secured permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for $900 million a year, EcoWatch <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-american-outdoors-act-2646574786.html">previously reported</a>. This fund uses <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> revenue to finance national parks and historic sites, along with local and state parks and recreation areas. The bill also earmarked $6.5 billion over the next five years to address the maintenance backlog currently burdening the National Park System, NPCA pointed out.</p><p>Trump claimed the bill signing as a major environmental legacy for himself and the Republicans.</p><p>"From an environmental standpoint and from just the beauty of our country standpoint, there hasn't been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect," he said at the signing ceremony, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/us/politics/trump-land-conservation-bill.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. "At some point, they'll have to start thinking about the Republican Party and all of the incredible things we've done on conservation and many other fronts."</p>
<p><br>Trump's remarks overlook the fact that his administration is the only one in history to strip more protections from public lands than it added, the <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2020/05/21/485260/anti-nature-president-u-s-history/" target="_blank">Center for American Progress calculated in May</a>. In fact, the administration has tried to gut protections for 35 million acres, an area roughly the size of Florida. Trump has also moved to roll back 100 environmental rules since taking office, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html" target="_blank">New York Times tracker</a>.</p><p>Trump undercut his own conservation bonafides Tuesday when he mispronounced California's famous Yosemite National Park as "Yo-Semites" twice in his speech.</p><p>"When young Americans experience the breathtaking beauty of the Grand Canyon, when their eyes widen in amazement as Old Faithful bursts into the sky, when they gaze upon yo-Semites, yo-Semites, towering sequoias, their love of country grows stronger, and they know that every American has truly a duty to preserve this wondrous inheritance," Trump said, according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-trump-mispronounces-yosemite-national-park-as-yo-semite-twice-2020-8" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>.</p>
<p>The park is one of the most frequented tourist destinations in the U.S. and welcomed 4.5 million people in 2019. However, the lead official at the park's visitors center told <a href="https://www.fresnobee.com/news/california/yosemite/article244730067.html" target="_blank">The Fresno Bee</a> that Trump's mistake was not uncommon.</p><p>"We hear it all the time, especially from East Coasters for some reason," CEO of <a href="https://www.yosemitethisyear.com/" target="_blank">Visit Yosemite Madera County</a> Rhonda Salisbury said. "I'm always shocked that people don't know how to say Yosemite. I think foreign visitors know how to say it correctly more than American visitors."</p><p>Trump's signing ceremony also obscured the bipartisan origin of the new law. Only Republicans were present, and Trump did not mention any Democrats during his speech, The New York Times reported.</p><p>In fact, the bill was introduced last year by Civil Rights icon and Georgia Democratic Representative John Lewis, who passed away in July. Trump made no mention of this.</p><p>He did credit the man who <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3422/all-info" target="_blank">introduced</a> it in the Senate, Colorado Republican Cory Gardner. Gardner is one of two Republicans who Trump said convinced him to sign the measure. Trump had previously wanted to cut funding for the LWCF by almost 97 percent, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510272-trump-signs-major-conservation-bill-into-law" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. But a more than hour-long meeting with Gardner and Sen. <a href="https://thehill.com/people/steve-daines" target="_blank">Steve Daines</a> (R-Mont.) persuaded him otherwise.</p><p>Gardner told reporters in June how he and Daines persuaded the president.</p><p>"I showed him a picture of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and I think Steve showed a picture as well and he looked at the park and said 'it's beautiful' and we pointed up at the picture of Teddy Roosevelt on the wall and said this could be the biggest accomplishment going back to Teddy Roosevelt," Gardner said in The Hill article.</p>
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As Biden Embraces More Ambitious Climate Plan, Fossil Fuel Execs Donate to Trump 'With Greater Zeal' Than in 2016
04 August
Politics
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a White House Clean Energy Investment Summit on June 16, 2015 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
With presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's climate platform becoming increasingly ambitious thanks to nonstop grassroots pressure, fossil fuel executives and lobbyists are pouring money into the coffers of President Donald Trump's reelection campaign in the hopes of keeping an outspoken and dedicated ally of dirty energy in the White House.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Houston Chronicle <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Oil-donors-flock-to-Trump-as-Biden-hardens-15453270.php" target="_blank">reported</a> Monday that oil and gas executives "are writing checks to President Donald Trump with greater zeal than they did four years ago, as Biden campaigns on a climate plan that seeks to eliminate carbon emissions by mid-century."</p><p><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=E01&cycle=2020&recipdetail=P&mem=N&sortorder=U" target="_blank">According to</a> the Center for Responsive Politics, Trump's reelection campaign has thus far raised over $936,000 from the oil and gas industry — more than three times the $265,000 the industry has donated to Biden as of July 21. By contrast, the Chronicle noted, Trump only narrowly led Hillary Clinton in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> industry donations during the 2016 campaign cycle.</p>
<p>"As the incumbent, Trump might seem a surer bet for companies than he was as a political outsider four years ago," the Chronicle reported. "At the same time, Biden's recent climate stance is very different from Clinton's, who as secretary of state had promoted the U.S. fracking industry overseas — Biden has sworn off donations from the oil and gas sector, though through loopholes executives are still giving."</p><p>Trump, for his part, is openly courting the oil and gas industry by warning that a Biden presidency would spell disaster for the fossil fuel sector, which has been <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/09/game-report-says-asset-sales-and-debt-driven-dividends-show-fossil-fuel-industry" target="_blank">hammered</a> by the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>"If these far-left politicians ever get into power, they will demolish not only your industry but the entire U.S. economy," Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-restoring-energy-dominance-permian-basin-midland-tx/" target="_blank">said</a> at the site of an active oil rig in Midland, Texas last week. The president went on to falsely claim that Biden supports a total ban on fracking. (Biden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/07/31/us/ap-us-trump-biden-fact-check.html" target="_blank">only supports</a> banning fracking on public lands.)</p><p>"No fracking, no drilling, no oil," Trump said of the former vice president's position.</p><p>While Biden's refusal to commit to the Green New Deal and a complete fracking ban has drawn the ire of environmentalists and advocacy groups, the former vice president's release last month of a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">$2 trillion green energy plan</a> was celebrated as an encouraging step in the right direction.</p>
<p>Biden's plan, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">reported</a>, calls for 100% clean electricity by 2035 and sweeping infrastructure upgrades that would create millions of new jobs.</p><p>"We've seen a pretty huge transformation in Biden's climate plan," Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/how-joe-bidens-surprisingly-ambitious-climate-plan-came-together/2020/07/31/b73e78d0-cd11-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html" target="_blank">told</a> The Washington Post on Sunday. "What I've seen in the last six to eight weeks is a pretty big transition in upping his ambition and centering environmental justice."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/03/biden-embraces-more-ambitious-climate-plan-fossil-fuel-execs-donating-trump-greater" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
Cuomo Blasts Trump's COVID-19 Response as 'Worst Government Blunder in Modern History'
04 August
Politics
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at a news conference on July 1, 2020 in New York City. Byron Smith / Getty Images
While the nation overall struggles with rising COVID cases, New York State is seeing the opposite. After peaking in March and April and implementing strict shutdowns of businesses, the state has seen its number of positive cases steadily decline as it slowly reopens. From coast-to-coast, Governor Andrew Cuomo's response to the crisis has been hailed as an exemplar of how to handle a public health crisis.
<p>Seeing the numbers go the wrong way in other parts of the country has prompted Cuomo to rail against the federal response to the crisis, and, in particular, the dearth of leadership from the White House. On Monday, Cuomo called President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a>'s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic "the worst government blunder in modern history," as <a href="https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Cuomo-Trump-COVID-19-response-worst-government-15454992.php" target="_blank">The Times-Union</a> in Albany reported.</p><p>During a press briefing in New York City, Cuomo passionately listed off a list of false statements and poor decisions that Trump and various White House officials made over the course of the crisis that underplayed the severity of the disease and resulted in many downplaying the risks and underpreparing for an outbreak.</p><p>"It was a mistake to say, 'It's just the flu,'" he said, as <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/coronavirus-updates-us-hits-monthly-high-new-cases-dr-birx-says-some-americans-should-wear-masks-home" target="_blank">Gothamist</a> reported.</p>
<p>In a video that Cuomo posted to <a href="https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1290363480277688320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1290363480277688320%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fgothamist.com%2Fnews%2Fcoronavirus-updates-us-hits-monthly-high-new-cases-dr-birx-says-some-americans-should-wear-masks-home" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, he asked the president to tell the truth and reiterated his list of grievances, writing, "The president has to tell the American people the truth. It was a mistake to downplay COVID. It was a mistake to say it would be gone by Easter. It was a mistake to say it will magically disappear. And it was a mistake to not set up a national testing program."</p><p>In his press conference, Cuomo said the nation should have learned the lessons New York did earlier and prepared better in the spring. He compared the deaths due to the virus to the loss of life in the Vietnam War.</p><p>"This was a colossal blunder, how COVID was handled by this federal government," Cuomo said, as <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/08/coronavirus-in-ny-hospitalizations-down-federal-response-a-colossal-blunder-cuomo-says.html" target="_blank">Syracuse.com</a> reported. "Shame on all of you."</p>
<p>He noted that states that opened too soon like Texas and Florida followed the federal government's lead in downplaying the pandemic.</p><p>"The reason they didn't (believe the gravity of the crisis) is because they were listening to the president," Cuomo said, as the Times-Union reported. "COVID kills Republicans and COVID affects red states. It is deadly serious."</p><p>According to Gothamist, he added: "This was not a political issue and it shouldn't have been politicized. This is public health, that's what this was, and it should have never been turned into a political symbol which is what this president did."</p><p>Cuomo also noted that medical experts were saying that the country needs to again "reset" by shutting down. And yet, he questioned if that would be effective if Trump did not change what he was saying about the seriousness of the infectious disease tearing through the country.</p><p>"If we don't tell the truth on the reset, COVID will never end," Cuomo said, according to the Times-Union. "And it will just bounce across the country."</p><p>The percentage of people testing positive in New York is around 1 percent. Hospitalizations reached a new low on Sunday after a peak of 18,000 in April. As Syracuse.com reported, 136 people were in intensive care units on Sunday and 62 people were intubated due to the virus, the lowest numbers since March.</p>
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Whooping cranes fly in Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, Alabama. There were only 48 whooping cranes in the country when the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, and thanks to the law's protections there are now over 600. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
By Eoin Higgins
Environmental groups on Friday condemned the announcement of a new rule proposed by President Donald Trump that would further weaken the Endangered Species Act by making it easier to destroy habitats vulnerable species rely on for survival.
<p>"President Trump is back for another whack at another key environmental law," <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/07/31/president-trump-again-takes-aim-endangered-species-act" target="_blank">said</a> Oceana senior federal policy director Lara Levison.</p><p>At issue is a planned rule change to the Endangered Species Act, or ESA, from the Department of Fish and Wildlife that would redefine "habitat" as "areas with existing attributes that have the capacity to support individuals of the species," precluding the restoration and repair of historical habitats that could, with time, support endangered species. </p>
<p>"The Trump administration won't be satisfied until it removes all protections for the natural world, including clean air and water, land, and now even habitat for our most vulnerable wildlife," Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/07/31/trump-administration-proposes-new-limits-protecting-endangered-species-habitat" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement.</p><p>As the Center for Biological Diversity explained:</p><blockquote>The definition stems from a 2018 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that said the Service needed to define the term habitat in relation to the highly endangered dusky gopher frog. The frog survives in one ephemeral pond in Mississippi. Recognizing that to secure the frog would require recovering it in additional areas, the Service designated an area in Louisiana that had the ephemeral ponds the frog requires. However, this area would need forest restoration to provide high-quality habitat.<br> <br>Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, the landowner, and Pacific Legal Foundation, a private-property advocacy group, challenged the designation, resulting in today's definition and the frog losing habitat protection in Louisiana.<br></blockquote><p>"This will have real life-and-death consequences for some of our nation's most vulnerable species," said Greenwald.</p><p>Oceana's Levison concurred with Greenwald's bleak assessment.</p><p>"The president's newly proposed rules will make it even harder to save species from extinction," she said. "The ESA protects threatened and endangered species like sea turtles and the North Atlantic right whale, as well as the habitats they depend on, but the draft rule released today reduces these protections."</p><p>Cathy Liss, president of the Animal Welfare Institute, called on the president and the administration to do the right thing for the planet by saving "an effective and popular law that serves as the last line of defense for rare species facing extinction." </p><p>"At a time of unprecedented wildlife extinction and habitat destruction, we should be working to strengthen — not weaken — the Endangered Species Act," said Liss.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/01/back-another-whack-trump-administration-rule-proposal-would-further-undermine" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em><em></em></p>
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U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) speaks at a hearing of the Judiciary Committee on June 11, 2020 in Washington, DC. Carolyn Kaster-Pool / Getty Images
By Yvette Cabrera
This story was originally published on Grist on July 30, 2020
Fifteen years ago, Kamala Harris — San Francisco's District Attorney at the time — created an environmental justice unit in her office. The goal was to go after the perpetrators of environmental crimes that were hurting some of the city's poorest residents.
<p>The state attorney general's office had emphasized the need for state and local law enforcement to step up because of a void left by federal authorities in the Bush administration who were busy rolling back environmental protections. "One of the best tools out there to go after polluters is to go after them on a criminal basis," a spokesperson for then–State Attorney General Bill Lockyer told <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-D-A-creates-environmental-unit-2666667.php" target="_blank">SFGate</a> in 2005. Across the country, communities burdened by pollution and contamination have been calling for that type of accountability at the federal level for decades.</p><p>Now, even as the Trump administration continues to aggressively roll back environmental regulations, that dream has a better chance of materializing. Harris, as California's junior senator, is fighting for a comprehensive piece of legislation that will give vulnerable communities the tools they need to address environmental disparities. On Thursday, Harris plans to introduce a companion bill in the Senate to the <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Environmental%20Justice%20for%20All%20Act%20Bill%20Text.pdf" target="_blank">Environmental Justice for All Act</a> introduced <a href="https://grist.org/justice/an-effort-to-bring-environmental-justice-for-all-goes-virtual/" target="_blank">earlier</a> this year in the House of Representatives by Democrats A. Donald McEachin of Virginia and Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona.</p>
<p>"Environmental justice is interconnected with every aspect of our fight for justice. From racial justice and economic justice, to housing justice and educational justice, we cannot disentangle the environment people live in from the lives they live," Harris told Grist in an email. "These crises we are experiencing have exposed injustices in our nation that many of us have known and fought our entire lives."</p><p>The Senate bill, whose lead cosponsors are Democrats Cory Booker of New Jersey and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, acknowledges how factors such as segregation and racist zoning codes have rendered communities of color more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and left them with limited resources to address ongoing environmental health disparities. To address this, the act aims broadly to meaningfully engage impacted communities in government decision-making processes, such as federal permitting decisions for infrastructure projects, the creation of climate resiliency plans, and the transition to clean energy.</p><p>For more than two years, Grijalva and McEachin have worked alongside environmental justice advocates to address these inequities during the drafting of the act. That work was underway well before the COVID-19 pandemic struck and before the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of a police officer this spring, which unleashed massive protests calling for the country to reckon with systemic racism. While the health crisis and movement for racial justice has put vulnerable communities in the spotlight, Grijalva told Grist that their aim was always to deliver a comprehensive environmental justice bill that could help these communities.</p>
<p>"The premise was … that we were going to deal with the systemic root causes, with the systemic solutions, not just cover up the problem or change one little thing or create another task force," said Grijalva, who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. "There had to be codified into law a systemic response to that systemic racism that created the situation."</p><p>The Environmental Justice for All Act would amend the Civil Rights Act to allow private citizens and organizations that experience discrimination to seek legal remedies when a program, policy, or practice causes a disparate impact. It would also require federal agencies to consider health effects that might compound over time when making permitting decisions under the federal Clean Air and Clean Water acts. In addition, it would fund research on and programs to reduce health disparities and improve public health in disadvantaged communities. Under the act, new fees on oil, gas, and coal companies would go toward a fund to support workers and communities transitioning away from fossil fuel jobs. Finally, the act also intends to codify and make enforceable a longstanding executive order on environmental justice that then–President Bill Clinton signed in 1994.</p><p>McEachin told Grist that the House and Senate bills acknowledge the racist roots of environmental burdens in low-income communities and communities of color. "This is a moment in time that does not just focus on police brutality, does not just focus on confederate memorabilia. The focus is on 401 years of racial injustice in this nation, and part of that has to be environmental justice," said McEachin. "If we're going to achieve a clean energy future, climate justice, and relief for those communities, the frontline community has to be the very centerpiece of that plan."</p>
<p>The Black Lives Matter movement has helped the act gain momentum toward passage in the House — Grijalva is optimistic that he'll be able to bring the bill to the floor of the House for a vote by September. Some of the act has also been incorporated into other Democratic proposals, like <a href="https://grist.org/politics/house-democrats-finally-have-a-goddamn-climate-plan/" target="_blank">the 538-page climate plan</a> recently released by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Some of the act's proposals are also reflected in the environmental justice <a href="https://joebiden.com/environmental-justice/" target="_blank">plan</a> released by presumed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, said Grijalva.</p><p>For example, Biden plans to revise and reinvigorate Clinton's executive order that directs federal agencies to review programs that may have disproportionately high or adverse health and environmental effects. Historically, the agencies have been inconsistent in addressing environmental justice within their strategic plans.</p><p>Environmental advocates who were involved in the creation of the House bill expressed enthusiasm for Harris' sponsorship of the bill in the Senate and said that the legislation could be a game-changer for frontline communities. Kerene Nicole Tayloe, director of federal legislative affairs for the New York City–based nonprofit WE ACT for Environmental Justice, said that the consideration of cumulative health impacts during permitting processes would be particularly important, especially in states like Louisiana that don't have meaningful environmental legislation on the books.</p>
<p>"Having something like the EJ for All bill, to consider cumulative effects in Cancer Alley and all of those kinds of places that have long been a dumping ground for companies and industry, I think would start to give communities the legal protections they need and put the tools in place," said Tayloe.</p><p>Angelo Logan, who is the campaign director of the Los-Angeles-based Moving Forward Network and who was also involved in crafting the House bill, told Grist that he hopes the act sets the stage for more community involvement in creating legislation at the local, state, and federal levels. "I think there'll be a dramatic change, a complete positive impact on communities that are the most impacted by environmental racism," said Logan. "And the multiplying effects that it would have on communities is tremendous."</p><p>As a <a href="https://kamalaharris.org/issue/climate-change/" target="_blank">presidential candidate</a>, Harris made acting on climate change a top priority. Last year, while running for president, she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/us/politics/kamala-harris-aoc-climate-change.html" target="_blank">unveiled</a> a climate equity plan with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and created a climate <a href="https://kamalaharris.org/policies/climate/full-policy/" target="_blank">agenda</a> that would address the climate crisis and environmental injustices while building a clean economy with well-paying jobs. As California's attorney general, she defended the state's landmark climate laws in court and sued Chevron U.S.A. Inc. for <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-kamala-d-harris-announces-proposed-245-million-settlement" target="_blank">damaging</a> the environment. Holding polluters accountable will be critical moving forward, and the Environmental Justice for All Act will help communities do just that, Harris told Grist via email.</p><p>Race, she noted, is the No. 1 predictor of where polluting facilities in America are located. And 70 percent of Americans who live in the highest air pollution areas of our country are people of color. "These disparities were in part intentionally created and so we must intentionally address them," said Harris. "That's what this bill does."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://grist.org/justice/exclusive-kamala-harris-to-introduce-comprehensive-environmental-justice-bill-in-senate/" target="_blank">Grist</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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