School is in session, Congress is back from August recess, and several states in our country have been battered by high category hurricanes. The head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, doesn’t think now is the time to discuss climate change. As a barrage of new issues take center stage, here are some important items that you might have missed from over the summer: (Tweet this)
- The EPA will lose 500 members of its staff by October. This will leave the department with the lowest number of employees since Ronald Reagan was in office.
- John Konkus, a Republican who worked on the Trump campaign, has been appointed to make decisions on grant giving for the EPA, politicizing the post.
- A lawsuit against the EPA and Scott Pruitt for delaying the rule to reduce emissions of smog-causing air pollutants was brought by 16 state attorneys general. New York State A.G. Eric Schneiderman was the lead on the case. He pointed to the potential increase in asthma attacks in children.
- 30 year EPA employee, Elizabeth Southerland, publically resigned, making a point to call out Trump and Pruitt on their shift to supporting a deregulatory stance. Qualifying her letter as her “civic duty to explain the impact of this administration’s policies on public health and safety,” Southerland also stated: “Today the environmental field is suffering from the temporary triumph of myth over truth.”
- Jim Bridenstine, a Republican Congressman from Oklahoma and a climate denier, has been nominated by Trump to run NASA.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) verified 2016 as the earth’s warmest year on record. The “State of the Climate” report, an annual comprehensive review of the earth’s climate, also stated that greenhouse gases, global sea level, and sea-surface temperatures were the highest on record.
- In August, while discussing his Infrastructure Executive Order, Trump noted that he would be reversing regulations put forth by Obama in the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard. That standard established climate change and sea level rise concerns as an integral part of construction planning.
- A 6-year ban on the sale of disposable bottled water in national parks was quashed. Note: The Deputy Interior Secretary, David Bernhardt, was previously a lobbyist with a law practice that represents Nestlé, the distributor of Deer Park water.
- Thirty senators pushed back against the move by Trump and Interior Secretary Zinke to reopening the Interior Department’s 2017-2022 plan for offshore drilling plan, finalized in 2016. That plan protected the Arctic Ocean and both Pacific and Atlantic coasts from drilling. Over one million public comments were submitted in favor of the protections.
- Sam Clovis was nominated by Trump to be the chief scientist of the Department of Agriculture. The job includes running the $3 billion research budget. Clovis is not a scientist. He doesn’t believe humans are driving climate change, and called what he’s heard on the topic “junk science.” Previously, he worked on the Trump Campaign in Iowa and was a Conservative talk show host.
- An August Pew Research Poll, taking a global survey of the perceived top 8 security threats by country, found that “global climate change” at 61 percent was considered the second largest potential threat. “ISIS” at 62 percent, came in first.
- Zinke is putting proposals in place that would drop the stringent protections currently covering 4 national monuments, and make them available to mining and drilling. The Bears Ears National Monument is in danger of having its boundaries diminished. It is home to important cultural sites of 5 Native American nations.
TELL CONGRESS: NOBODY VOTED TO MAKE AMERICA DIRTY AGAIN