While the nation’s attention has been turned to the coronavirus outbreak, the Trump administration in recent weeks has taken several actions to roll back environmental regulations. Easily lost in the chaos of the pandemic, these policies could have an equally devastating long-term impact on Americans.
Indeed, candidate Donald Trump promised to undermine environmental protections, and he was elected. But we believe an examination of these actions will be anathema to a majority of Americans, who depend on the federal government to enact reasonable standards for clean air and clean water that enhance our quality of life.
Instead, the administration has engaged in a cynical subversion of Americans’ health while capitulating to the desires of polluting industries.
Last week, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency weakened regulations regarding the release of mercury and other toxic metals from coal-fired power plants. Aaron Bernstein of Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health told The New York Times: “What is most disconcerting to me is this administration’s lack of interest in science and, frankly, their lack of concern for our nation’s children. Mercury pollution in the United States damages our children’s brains before they even come into the world, and estimates are that that cost is in the billions of dollars.”
The new guidelines alter the method for calculating the costs and benefits of reducing mercury pollution. “This is less about mercury than about potentially constraining or handcuffing future effort by the EPA to regulate air pollution,” said David Konisky of Indiana University.
President Trump has not only worked to give industry more freedom in polluting the environment, he has signaled that nobody is watching. Last month, EPA officials announced they will suspend indefinitely many enforcement efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic with no plans to catch up on missed monitoring. “It allows them an out on monitoring, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was,” former EPA official Cynthia Giles told The Hill.
All of this follows a decision last month regarding vehicle fuel efficiency. The Obama administration had enacted regulations calling for fleetwide efficiency to reach 54.5 mpg by 2025. The Trump plan will reduce that to 40 mpg. Meanwhile, the administration also is fighting to remove California’s ability to adopt its own fuel standards — a waiver it has had for five decades.
The Obama standards would have reduced carbon emissions from cars and light trucks by 6 billion tons, cutting them in half. The standards also would have reduced oil consumption by 2 million barrels a day and saved Americans a cumulative $1.7 trillion on fuel costs. A side benefit is that the guidelines would have resulted in a fleet of lighter vehicles on the road, which have been proven to reduce the rate of fatalities from crashes.
By its own analysis, the Trump administration’s newly proposed rules will increase carbon emissions, cost consumers more in gasoline purchases than they save on cheaper vehicles, and lead to more deaths. That is a high price for Americans and the environment to pay, and it is particularly pertinent as we recognize that today is Earth Day.
The coronavirus pandemic has Americans worrying about their health, both short-term and long-term. But with the Trump administration’s persistent war on environmental regulations, COVID-19 is not the only existential threat to our well-being.
