'Another Blow to the Black Community': Trump Waives Environmental Law That Gives Public a Voice in Infrastructure Projects
23h
Politics
A pipeline being constructed in Pennsylvania. Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday mandating federal agencies bypass key environmental reviews of energy and infrastructure projects.
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<p>Trump said the rule was designed to stimulate the economy in response to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, but critics say the move will disproportionately impact communities of color amidst ongoing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/protestors-publich-health-coronavirus-covid-19-testing-2646141562.html" target="_self">national protests</a> following the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other Black Americans. The order instructs agencies to work around the<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-environmental-policy-act" target="_self"> National Environmental Policy Act</a> (NEPA), which gives communities a chance to weigh in on projects that would impact them, as<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/870098279/trump-waives-environmental-reviews-citing-pandemic-economic-emergency" target="_blank"> NPR explained</a>. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">Fossil fuel</a> projects and highways tend to have a greater effect on Black and Brown communities, as <a href="https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/trump-executive-order-infrastructure-covid-19_n_5ed91e46c5b68d57cbcf9961?ri18n=true" target="_blank">HuffPost pointed out</a>.</p>
<p>"Today President Trump is dealing another blow to the Black community, during a worldwide pandemic and nearly a week into nationwide Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and structural racism," House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said in a statement reported by HuffPost. "Gutting NEPA takes away one of the few tools communities of color have to protect themselves and make their voices heard on federal decisions impacting them."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today Trump is taking action to make it harder for Black and brown communities to have a say on major decisions that will impact quality of life and the environment.<br><br>He did this in the middle of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackLivesMatter</a> protests against structural racism. <a href="https://t.co/lXypKm91a0">https://t.co/lXypKm91a0</a></p>— Natural Resources Committee (@NRDems) <a href="https://twitter.com/NRDems/status/1268626357254262784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>NEPA was signed by Richard Nixon in 1970, NPR summarized. It requires federal agencies to review the environmental consequences of projects like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self">pipelines</a> and consult the public. It may also invoke the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species-act" target="_self">Endangered Species Act</a> if vulnerable plants or animals would be threatened.</p><p>This isn't the first time the Trump administration has targeted NEPA. It proposed a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-environment-infrastructure-review-2644664081.html" target="_self">major rollback</a> in January that would limit the length of the review process and the number of projects subject to it.</p>
<p>The current executive order gives the Transportation Department, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Defense Department and the head of the Army Corps of Engineers 30 days to compile a list of expedited projects, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/climate/trump-environment-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. The agencies were ordered to "use all relevant emergency and other authorities" to speed the projects.</p><p>"Unnecessary regulatory delays will deny our citizens opportunities for jobs and economic security, keeping millions of Americans out of work and hindering our economic recovery from the national emergency," Trump wrote in the order.</p>
<p>However, environmental groups accused the administration of using the pandemic as a smokescreen for its broader deregulatory agenda. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has already <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-coronavirus-regulating-polluters-2645582013.html" target="_self">suspended</a> the enforcement of clean air and water laws, HuffPost pointed out.</p><p>"When it comes to trying to unravel this nation's environmental protection laws, this administration never sleeps," professor of environmental law at Harvard University Richard Lazarus told The New York Times.</p>
<p>The new order is so broad that environmental groups say it may be vulnerable to legal challenges, according to NPR.</p><p>Lazarus agreed.</p><p>"The president's assertion of authority to waive the application of environmental laws in the way described seems wholly untethered from law," he said.</p>
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Weeds dying in a soybean field impacted by dicamba spraying. JJ Gouin / iStock / Getty Images
A federal court overturned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approval of dicamba Wednesday, meaning the controversial herbicide can no longer be sprayed in the U.S.
<p>The product, originally designed by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/monsanto" target="_self">Monsanto</a>, is opposed by some farmers and environmental groups because it can drift when sprayed, damaging <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and other crops.</p><p>"Today's decision is a massive win for farmers and the environment. It is good to be reminded that corporations like Monsanto and the Trump Administration cannot escape the rule of law, particularly at a time of crisis like this," lead counsel George Kimbrell of the <a href="http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=10186" target="_blank">Center for Food Safety</a> told <a href="https://usrtk.org/pesticides/court-orders-epa-approvals-of-bayer-dicamba-herbicide-vacated-says-regulator-understated-the-risks/" target="_blank">U.S. Right to Know</a>. "Their day of reckoning has arrived."</p>
<p>The Center for Food Safety sued the EPA together with <a href="https://nffc.net/" target="_blank">National Family Farm Coalition</a>, <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> and <a href="http://www.panna.org/" target="_blank">Pesticide Action Network North America</a>. The groups argued that the EPA broke the law when it ruled on the safety of a kind of dicamba designed by Monsanto to be sprayed widely over crops genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide. This method means the dicamba can drift to other, non-resistant crops.</p><p>The herbicide is believed to have damaged 3.6 million acres of soybeans in 2017, and more than 1 million in 2018, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-03/bayer-s-dicamba-registration-pulled-by-court-on-herbicide-s-risk" target="_blank">Bloomberg News reported</a>.</p><p>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the EPA "substantially understated the risks" of the herbicides and also "failed entirely to acknowledge other risks," according to U.S. Right to Know.</p>
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<p>One of the risks the EPA failed to acknowledge was the "enormous social cost to farming communities" where the herbicide's use "has turned farmer against farmer, and neighbor against neighbor," the court wrote, according to Bloomberg. A farmer was shot and killed because of a dicamba-related argument in Arkansas in 2016.</p><p>The ruling impacts the dicamba-based herbicide sold by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bayer" target="_self">Bayer</a>, which acquired Monsanto in 2018. It also prohibits the use of BASF's Engenia and Corteva Agriscience's FeXapan, <a href="https://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN23B0JA" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Bayer told Reuters that the ruling impacted a 2018 EPA approval that expires in December and that it is currently at work on a new 2021 approval.</p><p>"Depending upon actions by the EPA and whether the ruling is successfully challenged, we will work quickly to minimize any impact on our customers this season," Bayer said.</p>
<p>The ruling comes around four months after a jury ruled against Bayer and BASF and in favor of a Missouri farmer who said the companies' dicamba products destroyed his peach orchard, according to Bloomberg.</p><p>That was the first of around 140 pending dicamba suits awaiting trial.</p><p>The dicamba suits are not the only suits Bayer inherited when it acquired Monsanto, Reuters pointed out. Wednesday's dicamba decision came days after arguments were heard in an appeal of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/jury-finds-monsanto-liable-in-the-first-roundup-cancer-trial--2595446068.html" target="_self">first</a> case to go to trial over whether or not the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glyphosate" target="_self">glyphosate-based</a> weedkiller <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/roundup" target="_self">Roundup</a> causes cancer.</p>
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U.S. Ranks 24th in New Environmental Performance Index, Near Bottom of Developed Countries
04 June
Politics
A coke storage area is seen as steam rises from the quench towers at the US Steel Clairton Works on Jan. 21, 2020, in Clairton, Pennsylvania. White plumes of smoke billow above western Pennsylvania's rolling hills as scorching ovens bake coal, which rolls in by the trainload along the Monongahela River. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
President Trump's claim that the U.S. has the cleanest air and water in the world has been widely refuted by statistics showing harmful levels of pollution. Now, a new biannual ranking released by researchers at Yale and Columbia finds that the U.S. is nowhere near the top in environmental performance, according to The Guardian.
<p>Not only is the U.S. not in the top 10, it's not in the top 20. It ranks 24th in the 2020 <a href="https://epi.yale.edu/2020-epi" target="_blank">Environmental Performance Index</a> (EPI), which was released on Thursday. The top ranked country, Denmark, has made commitments to a carbon-free future, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. By contrast, the U.S., during the Trump administration, has worked at breakneck speed to rollback environmental regulations, expand <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> development, and ditch international treaties protecting the environment. He has even questioned climate science and ridiculed its findings.</p><p>"If you look at Denmark, they're doing great but they're a tiny fraction of overall carbon emissions or greenhouse gas emissions broadly," said Zach Wenderling, lead researcher on the index, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/us-ranks-24th-in-the-world-on-environmental-performance" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "The U.S. is one of the top five players in every greenhouse gas, so we need to do better than just OK if we're going to generate the best practices."</p>
<p>Many signatories to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a> have ramped up their commitments to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, especially in Europe. European countries performed the best in the new index. After Denmark, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom rounded out the top four, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/us-ranks-24th-in-the-world-on-environmental-performance" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>Researchers at Yale and Columbia universities produce the global report, which is released every two years. It ranks 180 of the world's nations on 24 key indicators in 10 categories related to environmental health and ecosystem vitality.</p><p>The data-driven and empirical approach to environmental protection makes it easier to spot problems, track trends, highlight policy successes and failures, identify best practices, and optimize the benefits of investing in environmental protection, said Daniel Esty, a professor of environmental law and policy at Yale, in a university <a href="https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/dan-esty-on-the-2020-environmental-performance-index" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p><p>"[T]he EPI provides a clear and compelling way to see which countries are leading issue by issue, who is lagging, and what the best policy practices look like across a range of critical environmental challenges," said Esty, in the university <a href="https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/dan-esty-on-the-2020-environmental-performance-index" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
<p>Since the EPI was created in the year 2000, the U.S has never reached the top of the rankings.</p><p>"Countries that make an effort do better than those that don't don't and the U.S. right now is not making an effort. That shows up in a stagnation in the rankings where others are really seeing some significant improvements," said Esty, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/us-ranks-24th-in-the-world-on-environmental-performance" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>The U.S., which is the second largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions after China, is near the bottom of the rankings for advanced industrial countries. China, which suffers from poor air quality, has made significant investments in solar energy and reducing its dependence on coal, and climbed the rankings to 120th place. China is still a big polluter but has made "much more dramatic progress than other countries," Esty said, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/04/us-ranks-24th-in-the-world-on-environmental-performance" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>China's ranking as the world's worst contributor to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> is only recent. Over time, the U.S. has put more heat trapping gases into the air than any other country. India, which also sees its cities choking under polluted air quality, ranked 168th.</p>
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Medical Groups Call Racism a Public Health Issue, Condemn Police Brutality
03 June
Health + Wellness
Protesters gather to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota by police, on May 27, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The glaring numbers that show how disproportionately racial minorities have been affected by the coronavirus and by police brutality go hand-in-hand. The two are byproducts of systemic racism that has kept people of color marginalized and contributed to a public health crisis, according to three prominent medical organizations — the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American College of Physicians, as CNN reported.
<p>"Racism is a public health issue," the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote on Twitter. "The AAP condemns violence, especially when perpetrated by authorities, and calls for a deep examination of how to improve the role of policing. Systemic violence requires systemic response."</p><p>The tweet linked to the <a href="https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/144/2/e20191765" target="_blank">organization's 2019 statement</a> on the impact of racism on child and adolescent health.</p>
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<p>"The same broad-sweeping structural racism that enables police brutality against black Americans is also responsible for higher mortality among black Americans with COVID-19," said Maimuna Majumder, a Harvard epidemiologist working on the COVID-19 response, to <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/6/1/21276828/pandemic-protests-police-public-health-black-lives-matter" target="_blank">Vox</a>.</p><p>"One in every 1,000 black men and boys can expect to be killed by police in this country," she said "To me, this clearly illustrates why police brutality is a public health problem; anything that causes mortality at such a scale is a public health problem."</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.apha.org/news-and-media/news-releases/apha-news-releases/2020/racism-is-a-public-health-crisis" target="_blank">statement</a>, the American Public Health Association (APHA) also drew attention to the health challenges that systemic and institutional racism cause. "Racism attacks people's physical and mental health. And racism is an ongoing public health crisis that needs our attention now," said the APHA. The group went on to say discrimination can be seen in all aspects of life, including housing, education, the criminal justice system, and employment and it has been amplified during this pandemic as communities of color face inequities "in everything, from a greater burden of COVID-19 cases to less access to testing, treatment, and care."</p>
<p>Last week, the American Medical Association's (AMA) president and board chair teamed up to issue a joint <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> that "police brutality must stop," as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>"AMA policy recognizes that physical or verbal violence between law enforcement officers and the public, particularly among Black and Brown communities where these incidents are more prevalent and pervasive, is a critical determinant of health and supports research into the public health consequences of these violent interactions," the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> said.</p><p>"Recognizing that many who serve in law enforcement are committed to justice, the violence inflicted by police in news headlines today must be understood in relation to larger social and economic arrangements that put individuals and populations in harm's way leading to premature illness and death," they wrote, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. "Police violence is a striking reflection of our American legacy of racism — a system that assigns value and structures opportunity while unfairly advantaging some and disadvantaging others based on their skin color."</p>
<p>The statement also cited studies that people of color can suffer mental health consequences and feelings of trauma just by knowing that unarmed black men were victims of police brutality. "Racism as a driver of health inequity is also particularly evident in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31130-9/fulltext" target="_blank">findings from a 2018 study showing that law enforcement-involved deaths</a> of unarmed black individuals were associated with adverse mental health among Black American adults — a spillover effect on the population, regardless of whether the individual affected had a personal relationship with the victim or the incident was experienced vicariously," the AMA <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> said.</p><p>"The trauma of violence in a person's life course is associated with chronic stress, higher rates of comorbidities and lower life expectancy, all of which bear extensive care and economic burden on our healthcare system while sapping the strength of affected families and communities," the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> continued, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>In a similar vein, the American College of Physicians (ACP) released a <a href="https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/internists-gravely-concerned-about-discrimination-and-violence-by-public-authorities-and-others" target="_blank">statement</a> on Friday that its members are terribly concerned about "discriminatory enforcement and violence."<br></p><p>"ACP has long held that hate crimes, prejudice, discrimination, harassment and violence against any person based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, or country of origin is a public health issue," wrote Dr. Heather Gantzer, chair of the board of regents for the American College of Physicians, in the <a href="https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/internists-gravely-concerned-about-discrimination-and-violence-by-public-authorities-and-others" target="_blank">statement</a>, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. "The issue of how to ensure that policing does not result in discriminatory enforcement and violence is a multifaceted and complex one."</p>
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In a series of major wins for climate campaigners, New York regulators and Cuomo have repeatedly blocked construction of the $1 billion Williams Pipeline. Michael Brochstein / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
With the nation focused on the coronavirus pandemic and protests against U.S. police brutality that have sprung up across the globe, the Trump administration continues to quietly attack federal policies that protect public health and the environment to limit the legal burdens faced by planet-wrecking fossil fuel companies.
<p>The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-issues-final-rule-helps-ensure-us-energy-security-and-limits-misuse-clean-water-0" target="_blank">announced</a> a<a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-06/documents/pre-publication_version_of_the_clean_water_act_section_401_certification_rule.pdf" target="_blank"> final rule</a> about the Clean Water Act Section 401 certification process for energy infrastructure projects. The rule, first <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/09/egregious-handout-corporate-polluters-trump-epa-moves-accelerate-pipeline-approvals" target="_blank">proposed</a> in August 2019, sets a one-year deadline for permitting decisions and restricts the scope of what state and tribal officials can consider.</p><p>"Donald Trump and his administration are nothing if not vindictive, spiteful, and capricious," Food & Water Action executive director Wenonah Hauter <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/16/major-victory-climate-campaigners-ny-gov-cuomo-rejects-dangerous-williams-pipeline" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement Tuesday. "This new rule from the EPA, which seeks to undermine a bedrock environmental law and hamstring the rights of states to protect communities from water contamination and climate change, is just the latest example."</p><p>The Trump administration has completed 66 rollbacks of climate and environmental policies and is pursuing 34 more, which brings the first term total so far to 100, according to a<em> New York Times</em> analysis <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html?mtrref=www.google.com&assetType=PAYWALL" target="_blank">updated</a> on May 20. The greatest number of completed and in progress rollbacks relate to air pollution and emissions; 11 are about water.</p><p>Critics slammed the president and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/04/13/senate-confirms-coal-lobbyist-2-epa-trump-moves-slash-clean-air-rules" target="_blank">a former coal lobbyist</a>, for curbing states' power to protect residents and the planet by rejecting dirty energy projects—and for making yet another assault on national environmental safeguards in the midst of multiple global crises.</p>
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<p>The administration's new rule, Hauter declared, "is a direct response to repeated actions by concerned local communities and responsible state officials in New York and elsewhere to reject dangerous fossil fuel projects that have no business being built where they're not wanted."</p><p>"Like so much of what Trump is pursuing now, this is a targeted strike against environmental justice and racial justice," she said. "It's a fact that people of color and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by the air pollution, water contamination, and climate chaos produced by fossil fuel projects."</p><p>"As we're seeing so clearly now across society," Hauter added, "this president and this administration are at war with justice and well-being—particularly for the communities that lack these fundamentals the most."</p><p>Wheeler <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-issues-final-rule-helps-ensure-us-energy-security-and-limits-misuse-clean-water-0" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement Monday that new rule comes in response to an April 2019 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-promoting-energy-infrastructure-economic-growth/" target="_blank">executive order</a> from Trump, and is intended to "curb abuses of the Clean Water Act that have held our nation's energy infrastructure projects hostage, and to put in place clear guidelines that finally give these projects a path forward."</p>
<p>Wheeler also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/climate/trump-clean-water-pipelines.html" target="_blank">reportedly</a> took aim at New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, calling the governor's rejection of the Constitution Pipeline "probably the worst environmental decision by an elected official last year." The canceled pipeline <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2020/02/25/constitution-pipeline-project-ends-as-builder-cites-diminished-return-on-investment/" target="_blank">would have </a>brought fracked gas from Pennsylvania to the New York's Southern Tier.</p><p>In a series of major wins for climate campaigners, New York regulators and Cuomo have also <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/05/15/governor-cuomo-rejects-the-williams-pipeline-cleanenergywillwin/" target="_blank">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/16/major-victory-climate-campaigners-ny-gov-cuomo-rejects-dangerous-williams-pipeline" target="_blank">blocked</a> construction of the $1 billion Williams Pipeline. Citing a longtime EPA employee, <em>HuffPost</em> <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/epa-pipeline-water-quality-limiting-states_n_5ed506aec5b617333aa0b93d" target="_blank">explained</a> how the new rule could impact state deliberations over projects including that one:</p><blockquote>Pipelines―like the Williams Pipeline, which aimed to carry gas from the fracking fields of western Pennsylvania to homes in New York City and beyond―"might cross 20, 30, 40 streams, and each stream requires permits," said Mark Ryan, who specialized in Clean Water Act enforcement and permitting during his 24 years as the former EPA regional counsel for the Seattle area.<br><br>"With these very, very complex permits like with pipelines, the states will say, 'OK, we want more information... but we don't want to deny certification, but you have to withdraw the permit application,'" he said. "This new rule says states can't do that."<br></blockquote><blockquote>That means states must either grant or deny permits within 12 months or the EPA will deem the state permit waived. This incentivizes pipeline companies to withhold information states would need to fully assess a projects' impacts on water "to try to force the state to certify the permit," Ryan said.<br></blockquote><p>Ryan told the <em>Times</em> the rule is "a pretty significant retreat from what they were doing the last 40 years" and could be "very vulnerable" to a legal challenge considering past rulings, including a 1994 U.S. Supreme Court decision. As he put it: "The EPA will have a very hard time convincing the Supreme Court that its current interpretation of the Clean Water Act is correct."</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1267802127273005056" id="twitter-embed-1267802127273005056" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1267802127273005056&created_ts=1591102556.0&screen_name=EnvProtectioNet&text=.%40epa%E2%80%99s+rule+change+is+a+blatant+attack+on+states%E2%80%99+rights+and+flies+in+the+face+of+decades+of+Supreme+Court+rulings%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2Fk42d4AgTL5&id=1267802127273005056&name=Environmental+Protection+Network" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="a0d99172630e2eaea81fb529e2c93c87"></iframe><p>Hauter vowed that Food & Water Action "will be pursuing all avenues available—legal, electoral, and otherwise—to ensure that states have the right to reject fossil fuels as they see fit, and support vulnerable communities everywhere seeking to protect themselves from this malicious administration."</p>
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Photo credit: Black Birders Week seeks to highlight the experiences of Black scientists and nature lovers. Chad Springer / Image Source / Getty Images
A video of an incident in Central Park last Monday, in which a white woman named Amy Cooper called the cops on African American birder Christian Cooper after he asked her to put her dog on a leash, went viral last week, raising awareness of the racism Black people face for simply trying to enjoy nature.
<p>In response, a group of more than 30 Black <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists%5C" target="_self">scientists</a> and nature lovers decided to launch the first-ever Black Birders Week, a social media event intended to raise awareness of African American participation in outdoor activities and the challenges they face, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/black-birders-week-promotes-diversity-and-takes-racism-outdoors" target="_blank">Audubon Magazine reported</a>.</p><p>"For far too long, Black people in the United States have been shown that outdoor exploration activities are not for us," Corina Newsome, who studies seaside sparrows at Georgia Southern University, said in a video announcing the week. "Whether it be the way the media chooses to present who is the 'outdoorsy' type, or the racism Black people experience when we do explore the outdoors, as we saw recently in Central Park. Well, we've decided to change that narrative."</p>
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<p>The week kicked off Sunday, May 31 under the banner of <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/BlackAFinSTEM" target="_blank">BlackAFinSTEM</a>. Newsome told Audubon Magazine that the week and the newly organized group of scientists had three goals: to change the national image of who belongs outdoors, to educate the birding community about the racism faced by its Black members and to encourage diversity in outdoor studies and hobbies.</p><p>"Diversity is important for the robustness of any community trying to do anything," Newsome said.</p><p>While the week was initially organized in response to what happened to Christian Cooper, it has coincided with a week of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/protestors-publich-health-coronavirus-covid-19-testing-2646141562.html" target="_self">nationwide protests</a> following the racist murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breyonna Taylor, George Floyd and many others, something the organizers acknowledged.</p><p>"Many of us work in the outdoors, in urban areas and wilderness. It could've easily been anyone of us. We want our peers to not only recognize our existence but our experiences being Black. The history books set a precedent for civil unrest in the face of injustice," the group tweeted Sunday. "We want it to be clear that we stand with the protesters fighting against police brutality even as we organize a protest specific to being #BlackinNature."</p>
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<p>At the same time, the week offers a chance to celebrate the contributions that Black scientists and conservationists are already making to their fields, offering a respite from images of pain and violence, as co-founder and University of Georgia natural resources graduate student Sheridan Alford told <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/north-race-and-racism-blackbirdersweek-takes-on-systemic-racism-by-celebrating-diversity" target="_blank">High Country News</a>.</p><p>"[W]e think that it's very important to highlight the work that people are actually doing and kind of drive that conversation to, yes, look at us, and please acknowledge the hardship we go through — but as you acknowledge those hardships, also look at what we've been doing in our research, or what we've been doing in our communities to better the climate as a whole. So I think this week kind of fell exactly where it needed to, as far as time frame," she said.</p><p>There are virtual events <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/hood_naturalist/status/1266387168785846272" target="_blank">scheduled</a> for every day of the week except Wednesday. It began Sunday with a call to Black researchers and birders to share pictures of themselves in the field using the hashtag #BlackInNature.</p>
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<p>On Monday, participants were invited to share pictures or facts related to birds under the hashtag #PostABird. Tuesday saw a Twitter live chat called #AskABlackBirder. On Thursday, there will be a livestream discussion of #BirdingWhileBlack from 7 to 8:30 p.m. EST. And Friday wraps up with a day devoted to #BlackWomenWhoBird.</p><p>Non-Black birders are encouraged to participate by retweeting posts and learning from the livestream, according to Audubon.</p><p>"We are not excluding anyone," Alford told High Country News. "The whole purpose is to highlight and showcase Black birders, and anybody can do that."</p>
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Lit candles, flowers and signs are seen in front of the U.S. embassy in Warsaw, Poland on May 31, 2020. Aleksander Kalka / NurPhoto / Getty Images
As protests are taking place across our nation in response to the killing of George Floyd, we want to acknowledge the importance of this protest and the Black Lives Matter movement. Over the years, we've aimed to be sensitive and prioritize stories that highlight the intersection between racial and environmental injustice. From our years of covering the environment, we know that too often marginalized communities around the world are disproportionately affected by environmental crises.
<p>Now seems like a critical time to reshare a selection of these stories from our writers and our media partners. We know that if we want a healthier planet and life, environmental racism needs to be addressed. Here are 15 stories that highlight racial and environmental injustice and are worth reading during this time. There is no environmental justice without racial justice.<strong></strong></p>
<h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/black--hispanic-americans-coronavirus-2645677258.html" target="_self">Black and Hispanic Americans Suffer Disproportionate Coronavirus Infections</a><br></h2><p><em><strong>Published April 9, 2020, Author Jordan Davidson<br>Excerpt: </strong><br></em>Across the country, the novel coronavirus is severely affecting black people at much higher rates than whites, according to data released by several states, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/coronavirus-race.html?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20200408&instance_id=17477&nl=climate-fwd%3A&regi_id=86064351&segment_id=24329&te=1&user_id=bb077276a084ddee06decfc0648f4eef" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>In New York, which has seen the most COVID-19 related deaths, the virus has disproportionately affected both the black and Hispanic population. In New York City, Hispanics make up 29 percent of the population, but 34 percent of the city's COVID-19 deaths, while African Americans are 22 percent of the city's population and 28 percent of the fatalities, according to <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-19-deaths-race-ethnicity-04082020-1.pdf" target="_blank">new statistics</a> from the city and <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-04-08/coronavirus-disproportionally-kills-hispanics-and-blacks-in-new-york-city" target="_blank">US News and World Report</a>.</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-environmental-racism-policy-messages-2618309116.html" target="_blank">Environmental Racism at EPA: First Policy, Now Racist Messages Written at Headquarters</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published Nov. 6, 2018, Author Olivia Rosane<br></em></strong><strong><em>Excerpt:</em></strong><br>When it comes to the EPA's internal culture, EPA union AFGE 3331 President Nate James implied more education was needed about the impacts of racist messages like the ones that have popped up since August.</p><p>"We have diversity training but nothing that addresses, for lack of better words, when hateful language is being used it creates a threatening atmosphere, a hostile environment, where employees are concerned about their safety," James told ABC News.</p><p>James said that, earlier in the summer, another incident occurred where a note was left on an African American employee's desk reading "BACK TO THE JUNGLE U GO." The union said that EPA management's response to that incident showed "callous disregard and inattentiveness" and "demoralized" the employee.</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/lead-environmental-racism-2645941587.html" target="_self">Lead Poisoning Reveals Environmental Racism in the U.S.</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published May 7, 2020, Author Ben Knight / </em>Deutsche Welle<br></strong><em><strong>Excerpt:</strong><br></em>Statistically, the increased risk of lead poisoning associated with being black persists even when you correct for all other factors, from poverty to education levels to the presence of smokers in the home, to quality of housing.</p><p>"A lot of people had been saying: 'Oh black children are just more at risk because they're more likely to be poor,'" said study co-author Deniz "Dersim" Yeter, an independent academic and undergraduate nursing student in Kansas. "Yeah, poverty's a problem, but it's nothing compared to being a black child in America."</p><p>Yeter was "astounded" by the results of their three-year analysis. "I knew it was bad, but I was expecting something like a marginal increase, something statistically significant, but ... not two to six times higher," they told DW. "That is obscene."</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/racial-gap-air-pollution-2631407042.html" target="_blank">First-of-Its-Kind Study Finds Racial Gap Between Who Causes Air Pollution and Who Breathes It</a></h2><p><em><strong>Published March 12, 2019, Author Olivia Rosane <br>Excerpt:</strong></em><br>The first-of-its-kind study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that black and Hispanic Americans breathe in large amounts of dangerous air pollution that is mainly caused by the actions of non-Hispanic whites.</p><p>Even though minorities are contributing less to the overall problem of air pollution, they are affected by it more," study co-author and University of Minnesota engineering professor Jason Hill, who is white, told USA Today. "Is it fair (that) I create more pollution and somebody else is disproportionately affected by it?"</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-louisiana-cancer-alley-2645667499.html" target="_self">Coronavirus Comes for Louisiana's Cancer Alley</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published April 8, 2020, Author Climate Nexus<br>Excerpt: </em></strong><br>An area in Louisiana whose predominantly black and brown residents are hard-hit by health problems from industry overdevelopment is experiencing one of the highest death rates from coronavirus of any county in the United States.</p><p>St. John the Baptist parish, which sits along the Gulf Coast region known as Cancer Alley, has seen 30 of its 43,000 residents die of COVID-19 since the outbreak began – a death rate of 68.7 per 100,000 people, compared to New York City's rate of 29.</p><p>"We were getting calls almost every hour," parish coroner Christy Montegut told The Guardian. "...They all died in the same way. They got to a hospital, were on a ventilator, but the body just couldn't keep going. They died in spite of full treatment. The virus is overwhelming."</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/environmental-justice-civil-rights-2609569072.html" target="_self">Environmental Negligence vs. Civil Rights: Black and Hispanic Communities Get More Pollution, Fewer Jobs</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published Oct. 2, 2018, Author Olivia Rosane<br>Excerpt: </em></strong><br>By the numbers, black Americans hold 10.8 percent of the jobs at industrial facilities, but suffer 17.4 percent of the exposure to air pollution. Hispanics hold 9.8 percent of the jobs, but suffer 15 percent of the pollution exposure. Both populations have less than seven percent of the high-paying jobs offered at industrial sites, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2018-10-01/minority-communities-near-industrial-sites-get-pollution-not-jobs" target="_blank">U.S. News & World Report reported</a>.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> industry was the worst offender. At petroleum industry and coal-product facilities, blacks and Hispanics suffered 48 percent of the pollution exposure and only received around a fifth of the jobs.</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/african-americans-extreme-heat-exposure-2639313007.html" target="_self">African Americans Are Disproportionately Exposed to Extreme Heat</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published July 23, 2019, Author Adrienne Hollis / Union of Concerned Scientists<br>Excerpt: <br></em></strong>The extreme heat is almost three additional weeks' worth of extreme heat days for places that are more than 25% African American as opposed to those that are less than 25% African American. The reasons why African American communities are and will continue to experience more extreme heat days are likely complex, but it's probable that the root of the problem can be traced back to centuries of systemic mistreatment of people of color.<span></span></p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-hurts-the-poor-2639163107.html" target="_self">Why Climate Change Hurts the Poor the Most</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published July 11, 2019, Author Mallika Khanna / Common Dreams<br>Excerpt:</em></strong><br>The idea that environmentalism is an "elite" concern is a lie. Those who stand to gain the most from sweeping environmental protections are the marginalized people corporations assume can be put in toxic environments without fear of backlash.</p><p>That's the best reason yet to support <a href="https://otherwords.org/the-green-new-deal-lets-get-visionary/" target="_blank">a Green New Deal</a>, which would not only curb climate change, but also revitalize the U.S. economy, create millions of jobs, and create alternatives to harmful, unsustainable industries like the petrochemical industry in Cancer Alley that have harmed people for years.</p><p>That could make poor communities a lot less poor — and a lot more resilient.</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/african-americans-air-pollution-2509714660.html" target="_self">African Americans Disproportionately Suffer Health Effects of Oil and Gas Facilities</a></h2><p><em><strong>Published Nov. 15, 2017, Author David Leestma<br>Excerpt: </strong></em><br>The study found oil and natural gas facilities were built or currently exist within a half-mile of more than one million African Americans, exposing these communities to higher risks of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cancer" target="_self">cancer</a> due to toxic emissions. "African-Americans are exposed to 38 percent more polluted air than Caucasian Americans, and they are 75 percent more likely to live in fence-line communities than the average American," the report said, referring to neighborhoods near to gas and oil facilities.</p><p>Counties located in the Gulf Coast Basin are home to the most counties with oil refineries and higher percentages of African Americans. Michigan, Louisiana and Tennessee, the report found, have the highest percentage of African American residents living in oil refinery counties. Texas and Louisiana, both in the Gulf Coast Basin, were home to the largest African American individuals at risk for cancer, with nearly 900,000 living in areas above the EPA's level of concern.</p><p>"The effects of oil and gas pollution are disproportionately afflicting African Americans, particularly cancer and respiratory issues, and the trend is only increasing," said Dr. Doris Browne, the National Medical Association president.</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-gutting-nepa-2645437802.html" target="_self">Environmental Racism in Action: The Trump Administration's Plans to Gut NEPA</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published March 9, 2020, Author Derrick Z. Jackson / Union of Concerned Scientists <br>Excerpt:</em></strong><br>For communities long polluted by industry, which are <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/11/702348935/study-finds-racial-gap-between-who-causes-air-pollution-and-who-breathes-it" target="_blank">disproportionately poor and of color</a>, the Trump administration's changes promise particular devastation. Such communities already suffer higher rates of illnesses from asthma to cancer, life-altering effects such as low birth weight and cognitive child development, and daily insults to quality of life in diesel exhaust, soot penetrating into homes and contaminated yards and playgrounds.</p><p>If the administration has its way, NEPA implementation guidelines would be rewritten so that even in neighborhoods already densely packed with toxic industries, a proposed facility need only assess its own pollutants, not how much they combine and compound those of nearby facilities to worsen the overall quality of air, water and land.</p><p>To make sure residents cannot complain about such compounded damage, the Trump administration is trying to severely limit the opportunity for mothers, fathers, seniors, teens and community leaders to speak directly to the government.</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-science-environmental-justice-2645194069.html" target="_self">Beginning a Courageous Journey: Connecting Science & Justice</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published Feb. 19, 2020, Author Dr. Brian R. Shmaefsky / Union of Concerned Scientists <br>Excerpt: </em></strong><br>Historically, the benefits of science and technology have not been shared equally as is discussed in the 2016 Nature article <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/is-science-only-for-the-rich-1.20650" target="_blank"><em>Is science only for the rich?</em></a> A 2018 The Atlantic article <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/the-trump-administration-finds-that-environmental-racism-is-real/554315/" target="_blank"><em>Trump's EPA Concludes Environmental Racism Is Real</em></a> discusses that at times science has been used against environmental justice communities. In addition, the "Belmont Report," produced by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/sites/default/files/the-belmont-report-508c_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">documents a long history</a> of unequal benefits of medical research.</p><p>In part due to this history, scientists are not always or immediately trusted or welcome in environmental justice communities. Scientists also have a reputation for 'parachuting' into communities to conduct research and make recommendations for change without ever fully consulting the knowledge and lived experience of the people who live there. Community members want equal access to data, policymakers, and science or technology that can remediate environmental injustice.</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/formosa-plastics-louisiana-slave-burial-ground-2641658521.html" target="_self">Plastics Plant Will Bulldoze Over Black History in 'Cancer Alley'</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published Dec. 20, 2019, Author Climate Nexus <br>Excerpt:<br></em></strong>A major <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics" target="_self">plastics</a> manufacturing complex planned for construction in a highly-polluted region of Louisiana may disrupt a historic slave burial site, The Intercept reports.</p><p>Human remains and evidence of grave shafts were discovered earlier this year on land being developed by Formosa Plastics Group in St. James Parish in Louisiana. The plant could double the amount of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" target="_self">air pollution</a> in the region and emit 13 million tons of carbon pollution each year. Many of the residents of St. James Parish, located in a stretch of the state known as "Cancer Alley," one of the most polluted stretches in America, say they are descended from slaves who worked on various plantations in the area. "That's sacred ground," activist and St. James Parish resident Sharon Lavigne told The Intercept. "They're saying they don't care about your ancestors. They're slapping us in the face."</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/formosa-plastics-louisiana-slave-burial-ground-2641658521.html" target="_self"><br></a></p>
<h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/environmental-racism-trump-2638817301.html" target="_self">How 'Freeway Revolts' Helped Create the People's Environmental Law</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published June 14, 2019, Author Teju Adisa-Farrar & Raul Garcia / Earthjustice <br>Excerpt: </em></strong><br>The spirit that drove communities of color and neighborhood residents throughout the U.S. to hang banners, picket, sit in and stand up in the 1950s and 1960s is alive today. Even though several communities of color across the nation have been displaced and burdened by pollution because of freeway development projects in the 1960s, NEPA helps to fight against exclusionary and environmentally disruptive planning processes.</p><p>As we fight to end environmental racism, we cannot allow the Trump administration and its allies in Congress to retrench the people's tools for access to justice. We cannot allow them to limit public comments and continue to shut communities out of the NEPA process. It is through direct action and community engagement that NEPA came to be; safeguarding it gives people more power to be a part of the decisions that determine what happens in their communities.</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/fighting-for-a-just-covid-19-response-2645641251.html" target="_self">Fighting for a Just COVID-19 Response</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published April 5, 2020, Author Derrick Z. Jackson / Union of Concerned Scientists <br>Excerpt:</em></strong><br>The risk of unequal treatment is embedded in even the seemingly universal "we're-all-in-this-together" advice we are getting to protect ourselves and stop the spread of the coronavirus. One person who sees this clearly is <a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/post/pediatrician-says-poisoned-accurate-description-what-happened-flint-children" target="_blank">Lawrence Reynolds</a>, a pediatrician in Flint, Michigan. He served on the 2016 Michigan task force <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/documents/snyder/FWATF_FINAL_REPORT_21March2016_517805_7.pdf" target="_blank">which determined</a> that the Flint Water Crisis in that <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/flintcitymichigan" target="_blank">54-percent</a> African American city was "a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice."</p><p>Reynolds retired a year ago but was asked by Flint's mayor to be an advisor for COVID-19 care.</p><p>He said he already sees where daily life for disadvantaged people is not being factored into public health advisories. "Take social distancing," he said. "That is much easier to do for a family that owns a single-family home where they can spread out inside the home and have a backyard to get some fresh air in private. That is much harder for people who live in small apartments in buildings where people are always passing each other in the hallways. No one has come up with a strategy as to how those folks are supposed to 'social distance.'"</p><h2><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/green-new-deal-farmland-2645649043.html" target="_blank">We Need a Green New Deal for Farmland</a></h2><p><strong><em>Published April 7, 2020, Author Liz Carlisle / Yes! Magazine<br>Excerpt:</em></strong><br>The absence of a coherent U.S. land policy can be blamed for some of the current problems with farmland concentration, say the authors of the Data for Progress memo. But co-lead author Leah Penniman, founding co-director of Soul Fire Farm in Upstate New York, argues that the U.S. government has had a very influential de facto land policy over the past century, even if it wasn't articulated as such. "The very basis of U.S. land policy is rooted in the theft of land and the exclusion of people of color from land," Penniman explains. "This, of course, started with the genocidal stealing of almost the entire continent from the stewardship of Indigenous people … [and] throughout much of our history, there have been various state-level property ownership requirements that excluded people of color from being able to own property."</p><p>When people of color did amass property, Penniman says, they were targeted with violence.</p><p>"The Ku Klux Klan, the White Caps, and the White Citizens Council were responsible for lynching almost 4,500 people, many of whom were landowners, who they saw as having the audacity to get off the plantation and to want to stop sharecropping." The federal government also discriminated against black farmers through USDA programs, Penniman explains, resulting in a rapid decline of black farmers from 14% of the nation's farmers in 1910 to approximately 1% today.</p>
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with industry executives on the reopening of the U.S. economy in the State Dining Room May 29 in Washington, DC. Erin Schaff-Pool / Getty Images
By Jon Queally
President Donald Trump at a White House press conference on Friday announced he was "terminating" ties to the World Health Organization, even as the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic nears 363,000 — including the more than 100,000 dead from the virus in the U.S., many attributed to his own mismanagement of the crisis.
<p>While bashing China for "having total control" over the international organization that is based in Geneva, Trump said that because of its refusal to submit to reforms demanded by the White House, "we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs."</p><p>Watch:</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1266443672654135297" id="twitter-embed-1266443672654135297" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1266443672654135297&created_ts=1590778675.0&screen_name=thehill&text=%23BREAKING%3A+President+Trump+severing+ties+to+WHO%3A+%22We+will+be+today+terminating+our+relationship+with+the+World+Heal%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FmohFgeoeqs&id=1266443672654135297&name=The+Hill" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="42a5f7e49d36df008be530e7da50a871"></iframe>
<p>Not surrounded by his Covid-19 Task Force that includes trusted public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Trump made the announcement surrounded by top cabinet members, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.</p><p><a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">According</a> to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center's database, the global death toll from the pandemic sat at 362,554 on Friday afternoon just as Trump was speaking, with 102,201 of those in the U.S. — the country with the highest number of deaths, by far.</p><p>Trump has repeatedly deflected blame onto the WHO to mask his own failures, according to critics, many of whom pointed to Friday's development as the logical conclusion of what the U.S. president has been doing since the pandemic began nearly three months ago:</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1266443644803977217" id="twitter-embed-1266443644803977217" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1266443644803977217&created_ts=1590778668.0&screen_name=ThePlumLineGS&text=Now+that+Trump+is+terminating+our+relationship+with+WHO+and+blaming++them+for+his+own+failures%2C+here%27s+a+comparison%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FQJUdH0rgLI&id=1266443644803977217&name=Greg+Sargent" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="bf313f6832a04f7d61bd26b7e7ab5ccd"></iframe>
<p>"There is one rogue state in the world, and humanity would be better off if it terminated its relationship with existence," <a href="https://twitter.com/ajitxsingh/status/1266445907932798977" target="_blank">said</a> journalist Ajit Singh in terse response to Trump's announcement.</p><p>"When every single country in the world is able to work with the WHO, except for one whose president advocates treating coronavirus with bleach and UV light," Singh added, "who do you think is at fault?"</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/29/amid-global-pandemic-nearly-363000-dead-trump-terminates-us-ties-world-health" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
Clean Water Act Rollback: Trump's EPA Limits States’ and Tribes’ Rights to Block Pipelines
02 June
Politics
Workers clean up a crude oil leak from a pipeline in Minnesota in 2002. JOEY MCLEISTER / Star Tribune via Getty Images
The Trump administration has finalized a rule making it harder for states and tribal communities to block pipelines and other infrastructure projects that threaten waterways.
<p>The change concerns Section 401 of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-water-act" target="_self">Clean Water Act</a>, which essentially gives states and tribes veto power over projects that would hurt their water quality, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/500480-trump-rule-limits-states-from-blocking" target="_blank">The Hill explained</a>. The changes, announced by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA) Monday, give states and tribes a one-year deadline for reviewing projects and narrow the scope of what they can consider to only water issues, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/climate/trump-clean-water-pipelines.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. They may no longer block projects because they would contribute to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>"This is a dangerous mistake," director of federal water policy at the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) Jon Devine said in a <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nrdc/epa-curbs-state-and-tribal-authority-block-projects-harm-waterways?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=EJ" target="_blank">statement</a>. "It makes a mockery of this EPA's claimed respect for 'cooperative federalism.'"</p>
<p>In recent years, states have used Section 401 to block a number of high profile <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> projects, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/06/01/epa-limits-states-tribes-ability-protest-pipelines-other-energy-projects/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>. Last month, New York and New Jersey <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-york-rejects-williams-pipeline-2646023924.html" target="_self">blocked permits</a> for the Northeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline, which would have carried fracked <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/natural-gas" target="_self">natural gas</a> from Pennsylvania through both states. New York also blocked the Constitution pipeline that would have also moved gas from Pennsylvania. And Washington state blocked a $680 million <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> export facility in 2017.</p><p>Climate activists have seen Section 401 as a useful tool for keeping fossil fuels in the ground, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/867224980/trump-administration-limits-states-power-to-stop-oil-and-gas-pipelines" target="_blank">NPR explained</a>. But industry groups and the Trump administration have accused states of abusing their veto powers, and President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> issued an executive order in April 2019 mandating federal agencies ease the completion of energy infrastructure projects, according to The Washington Post.</p><p>"Today, we are following through on President Trump's Executive Order to curb abuses of the Clean Water Act that have held our nation's energy infrastructure projects hostage, and to put in place clear guidelines that finally give these projects a path forward," EPA Administrator and former coal lobbyist <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/andrew-wheeler" target="_self">Andrew Wheeler</a> said in a statement reported by The Hill.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">EPA announced a final rule that will streamline the construction of modern infrastructure projects across the United States, while ensuring our nation’s waterways are protected. <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realdonaldtrump</a> is delivering on another promise! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PromisesMadePromisesKept?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PromisesMadePromisesKept</a> <a href="https://t.co/hFGqKzraO0">https://t.co/hFGqKzraO0</a> <a href="https://t.co/LcrGsm4si8">pic.twitter.com/LcrGsm4si8</a></p>— EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler (@EPAAWheeler) <a href="https://twitter.com/EPAAWheeler/status/1267525012489146370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Fossil Fuel groups welcomed the change.</p><p>"We hope that EPA's action today will help end the abuse of the section 401 permitting process, which has been used to obstruct projects for reasons that had nothing to do with protecting water quality," National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan told NPR.</p><p>Lawyer, former EPA employee and Clean Water Act expert Mark Ryan told The Hill that the changes were a major departure that would put states at a disadvantage.</p><p>"This changes the balance of power that has existed over the last 40 years from the states to the applicants," he said.</p><p>He explained that applicants would be incentivized to run down the clock on states by withholding information. However, he also thought it was unlikely the changes would hold up in court.</p><p>"The new rule will be very vulnerable to a legal challenge; the EPA will have a very hard time convincing the Supreme Court that its current interpretation of the Clean Water Act is correct," he said in a statement emailed to EcoWatch.</p>
<p>And a legal challenge looks likely.</p><p>"We won't stand idly by as they rip away our authority under the law to preserve water quality," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose state has sued the Trump administration <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-fuel-efficiency-rollback-lawsuit-2646114003.html" target="_self">82 times</a>, said in a statement reported by The Washington Post.</p>
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The Pile River flows into the northern end of Lake Iliamna. The lake and its tributaries are the headwaters of the Bristol Bay region, one of the richest salmon fisheries in the world. Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wrote a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers last week to say that it would not oppose or put a stop to a huge copper and gold mine near the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, as The Washington Post reported.
<p>The Pebble Mine, a vast copper and gold deposit, is worth an estimated $500 billion in natural resources. However, it is in the Bristol Bay region of southwest <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/alaska">Alaska</a>, a resource that brings in $1.5 billion annually and provides a vital food source for thousands of Alaska Native residents who live there, according to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/alaska-pebble-mine-bristol-bay/" target="_blank">PBS</a>. An effort to build the mine at the heart of the Bristol Bay watershed has been an ongoing fight in Alaska.</p><p>The project was seemingly dead in 2012, but it got a new lease on life with the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration when the Pebble Partnership filed for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in late 2017. The EPA has raised many concerns about the project, saying that it may result in substantial and unacceptable impacts to "aquatic resources of national importance," as <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/28/in-showdown-over-pebble-mine-epa-blinks/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> reported.</p>
<p>In response, the Army Corps of Engineers announced what that the least damaging way to bring the ore out of the mine would be to take it out around the north side of Lake Iliamna, according to <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/28/in-showdown-over-pebble-mine-epa-blinks/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a>.</p><p>Christopher Hladick, the EPA's regional administrator for Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, wrote to the Alaska district engineer, Col. David Hibner, that the agency's serious concerns about the plan continued. He noted that the concerns include the fact that dredging for the open pit mine "may well contribute to the permanent loss of 2,292 acres of wetlands and ... 105.4 miles of streams," as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/29/epa-opts-not-delay-controversial-alaska-mine-now/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The EPA will still have the authority to veto the project, but the latest letter makes it unlikely to do so.</p>
<p>Mark Ryan, a lawyer in private practice who served as regional counsel in EPA Region 10 between 1990 and 2014, told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/29/epa-opts-not-delay-controversial-alaska-mine-now/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> that the EPA's letter appears contradictory.</p><p>"It's a very odd letter," Ryan said. "It points out the mine's very serious environmental damage but then does not invoke EPA's powers to elevate the issue for further discussion."</p><p>"Today's decision ... gives us more reason to believe that there will be no veto," Pebble CEO Tom Collier said in a written statement, as <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/28/in-showdown-over-pebble-mine-epa-blinks/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> reported. "This is consistent with our observation that (the Corps) and EPA, and the other cooperating agencies, have been working well together to resolve all outstanding issues."</p>
<p>Opponents of the project argue that the mine will damage the salmon, which are critical for the economy, for sustenance and for the region's cultural heritage.</p><p>"There are still many substantive issues with the project proposal that have yet to be resolved," said Daniel Cheyette, the vice president of Bristol Bay Native Corp., whose Alaska Native corporation opposes the mine, which would be the largest in North America, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/29/epa-opts-not-delay-controversial-alaska-mine-now/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>While the Army Corps of Engineers has said the mine will have minimal impact on the salmon, environmental groups strongly disagree.</p><p>"It's about four times larger than the largest mine the EPA said that it was willing to consider for permitting," said Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council, to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/alaska-pebble-mine-bristol-bay/" target="_blank">PBS</a>. "The notion that the contaminants can be contained in any reliable fashion in that kind of environment has never been proven, never been tested, and in the judgment of virtually any independent scientist, simply can't be done."</p>
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Mourners after a mass burial of coronavirus victims in Brazil, which now has the world's second largest outbreak after the U.S. Andre Coelho / Getty Images
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases passed six million Sunday, even as many countries begin to emerge from strict lockdowns.
<p>As of Monday morning, the total global tally of cases was at 6,172,448, with 372,136 deaths, according to <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">Johns Hopkins University</a>. The U.S. still leads the world for both caseloads and deaths, with nearly 1.8 million cases and 104,383 fatalities. Brazil now has the second-highest number of cases, at 514,849.</p><p>Combatting the outbreak has become a charged political issue in Brazil, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/global-report-coronavirus-cases-pass-6-million-as-donald-trump-postpones-g7" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>, as governors and mayors impose lockdown measures while rightwing President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/jair-bolsonaro" target="_self">Jair Bolsonaro</a> rails against the "tyranny of total quarantine."</p><p>The country's health ministry said it had no idea when the outbreak would peak, and experts say its caseload could be much higher than reported because there has not been widespread testing.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, U. S. President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> announced Saturday that the G7 meeting he had wanted to host in Washington, DC in late June would be postponed until September, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/donald-trump-postpones-g7-summit-and-signals-wider-attendance-list-in-future" target="_blank">The Guardian reported further</a>. The decision reverses an intention laid out in a May 20 tweet.</p><p>"Now that our Country is 'Transitioning back to Greatness', I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David. The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all - normalization!" he wrote.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1263113203749453827" id="twitter-embed-1263113203749453827" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1263113203749453827&created_ts=1589984629.0&screen_name=realDonaldTrump&text=Now+that+our+Country+is+%E2%80%9CTransitioning+back+to+Greatness%E2%80%9D%2C+I+am+considering+rescheduling+the+G-7%2C+on+the+same+or+si%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FIwr9kZFMoL&id=1263113203749453827&name=Donald+J.+Trump" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="1a20435921e966226f13b72150612906"></iframe>
<p>His reversal came days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel told him in a phone call that she thought holding the summit was a health risk. Her office said on Saturday she would not attend the meeting unless the coronavirus situation had changed substantially, <a href="https://apnews.com/5ee3a0ae2216bf696561729cd08e8ad9" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported.</p><p>"As of today, given the overall pandemic situation, she cannot commit to participating in person," her office said, according to The Associated Press.</p>
<p>However, in other ways many countries are moving back towards normalcy. Here are some of the restrictions being eased, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/world/coronavirus-news.amp.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/world-covid-19-cases-top-6-million-as-leaders-disagree-on-pandemic-response/" target="_blank">EURACTIV</a>:<span></span></p><ul><li>Greece: To boost tourism, the country is reopening to all international travelers. Two airports will handle international travel from June 15 to June 30, while international flights will resume for all airports July 1, along with international arrivals by sea.</li><li>Norway and Denmark: The two Scandinavian countries will allow travel between each other.</li><li>The Middle East: Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque reopened for prayers Sunday, while Iran announced that collective prayers would begin again in mosques.</li><li>Europe: Parks and the Galeries Lafayette department store reopened in Paris Saturday, as did Italy's Tower of Pisa. In Austria, hotels and movie theaters opened to customers provided they wear masks.</li><li>The U.S.: Washington, DC allowed outdoor dining again while Los Angeles reopened restaurants and hair salons. Hard-hit New York City will start reopening the week of June 8.</li><li>The UK: More stores and English primary schools will reopen Monday, and small groups will be able to gather outdoors. Professional sports will also begin June 1.</li></ul>
<p>However, not all <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a> experts think it is wise to ease lockdown measures.</p><p>Experts on the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) urged caution, as <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/29/covid-19-spreading-too-fast-to-lift-uk-lockdown-sage-adviser?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&__twitter_impression=true" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. There are still 8,000 new coronavirus cases in England a day, and that figure does not include hospitals and care homes.</p><p>"Covid-19 spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England," SAGE member Jeremy Farrar tweeted.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Covid-19 spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England. Agree with John & clear science advice. TTI has to be in place, fully working, capable dealing any surge immediately, locally responsive, rapid results & infection rates have to be lower. And trusted <a href="https://t.co/ZmYKs4Go3W">https://t.co/ZmYKs4Go3W</a></p>— Jeremy Farrar (@JeremyFarrar) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyFarrar/status/1266470822564200456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>And not every country is joining the race to reopen. In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Sunday he would ask Parliament to extend the state of emergency until June 21, The New York Times reported.</p><p>"We cannot throw away all the work that we have done," he said.</p>
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