Free Republic

COVID-19: It’s all we talk about, on the cable news, and in our 6-foot socially-distanced prison walks around our silent neighborhoods. And in nearly every conversation comes the intellectual shrug, “who could have seen this coming?” A single phrase that neatly absolves governments and experts alike of any responsibility of predicting the pandemic and, if not being able to stop it, at least cushioning its blow........ But is it unfair to engage in so much 20-20 hindsight? After all, who could see COVID coming? Well, we did. We — as in nodes within the U.S. Government tasked with tracking critical...

The Trump White House has intervened to weaken one of the few public health protections pursued by its own administration, a rule to limit the use of a toxic industrial compound in consumer products, according to communications between the White House and Environmental Protection Agency. The documents show that the White House Office of Management and Budget formally notified the EPA by email last July that it was stepping into the crafting of the rule on the compound, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, used in nonstick and stain-resistant frying pans, rugs, and countless other consumer products. The White House repeatedly pressed...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended its enforcement of a variety of environmental laws on Thursday, saying that industries could have trouble complying with them due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency added that it won't expect "to seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations." "EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements," said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. "This temporary policy is designed to provide enforcement discretion...

The Trump administration is rejecting appeals to slow its deregulatory drive while Americans grapple with the coronavirus, pushing major public health and environmental rollbacks closer to enactment in recent days despite the pandemic. As Americans stockpiled food and medicine and retreated indoors and businesses shuttered in hopes of riding out COVID-19, federal agencies in recent days moved forward on rollbacks that included a widely opposed deregulatory action by the Environmental Protection Agency. The proposed rule would require disclosure of the raw data behind any scientific study used in the rulemaking process. That includes confidential medical records that opponents say could...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a list Tuesday of qualified disinfectants to use for protection against the coronavirus. “The EPA-registered disinfectant products on our Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2 list have qualified under EPA’s emerging viral pathogen program for use against SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus that causes COVID-19,” the website stated. Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses, which means they are among the easiest types to kill with the appropriate disinfectant, according to the EPA. There may be additional disinfectants that meet the criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2. EPA will update this list with additional products as needed,” the agency stated....

**SNIP** "Historic resistance from Democrats, the media and even some Republicans has made your accomplishments even more monumental," Gunasekara wrote. "I am increasingly concerned with the rhetoric from the far-left supportive of Venezuelan-style socialism, government take-overs and crony 'green new deals' that do little for the environment and threaten our economic success." **SNIP** Appearing on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Nye said Gunasekara's environmental policies were "striking" given that she and her husband have two young kids who will "inherit the Earth." He noted that these children are going to have to interact with their mother, who has been a...

U.S. House Democrats jammed through a resolution Thursday to revive a constitutional amendment that could end all abortion restrictions and allow unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to birth. The Democrat-controlled House passed House Joint Resolution 79 in a 232-183 vote in an attempt to nullify the seven-year deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that expired in 1979. Five Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the resolution. The bill now heads to the Senate, which will not likely take it up for consideration. The constitutional amendment appears to be simple. It states that “equality of rights under...

In 2011, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum urging federal agencies to “take steps to expedite permitting and review,” including “setting clear schedules for completing steps in the environmental review and permitting process.” Such bureaucratic delays, Obama explained, interfered with the “engine of job creation and economic growth[.]” In recognizing the significant costs that excess bureaucracy imposes, Obama was in good company. Presidents of both political parties long have sought to make the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — a federal statute that requires agencies to produce reports on the environmental effects on their actions — work for the American...

Another day, another barrage of hysterical reactions to a marginal regulatory reform. The latest cause for concern is the White House's finalized clean water rule that renounces the federal government's ability to regulate ponds, puddles, and (some) ditches. Yesterday's regulation replaces the prior Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule issued by the Obama administration in 2015. The Obama-era rule was controversial from the get-go, with multiple Red states filing legal challenges claiming it exceeded the federal government's authority to regulate water pollution. A slew of federal court rulings stayed the implementation of the rule in over half the states....

The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Thursday afternoon scaling back an Obama-era regulation farmers and energy producers claimed saddled them with unnecessary burdens. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the rule change in Las Vegas, effectively hemming in a regulation restricting the use of fertilizers and pesticides. President Donald Trump promised to repeal his predecessor’s “Waters of the United States” policy when he was running in 2016. Rolling back WOTUS saves landowners, farmers and businesses from being forced to hire “teams of attorneys to tell them how to use their own land,” Wheeler told reporters at a meeting of the...

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration appears ready to move ahead with its plan to remove protections for some of the nationÂ’s millions of miles of streams, wetlands and arroyos, completing one of its most far-reaching environmental rollbacks. The changes, promised by President Donald Trump in his first weeks in office, would sharply scale back the governmentÂ’s interpretation of which waterways qualify for protection against pollution and development under the half-century-old Clean Water Act. Trump says he is targeting federal rules and regulations that impose unnecessary burdens on businesses. The changes had been sought by industry, developers and farmers, but opposed...

New York and Connecticut sued the Trump administration on Thursday, alleging it has failed to enforce the U.S. Clean Air Act and allowed five neighboring states to pump unhealthy levels of pollution into their states. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan asks the court to compel President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency to protect states that are downwind from other states with excessive air pollution. “More than two-thirds of New Yorkers regularly breathe unhealthy air, yet the Trump administration continues to ignore the smog caused by upwind air pollution,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in...

Remember when dishwashers actually cleaned your dishes? Toilets required only one flush? And faucets had more pressure than an IV drip? Well so does President Trump. Here he is, at the rally on Tuesday, addressing all of the above…plus showerhead pressure. If you’ve recently redone your kitchen/ bathroom or have checked into newer hotels you have firsthand experience with that of which the President speaks.Democrats think the country is held in thrall by their impeachment antics but in fact real people are far more concerned with government intrusion into every aspect of their lives, dictating everything from what kind of...

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a finding that could – and certainly should – undermine some of the most outrageous lawsuits and jury awards in American history. Bolstered by San Francisco area juries that have given multi-multi-million-dollar awards to clients who claim glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller) caused their cancer, jackpot justice lawyers have recruited some 20,000 additional “corporate victims” who hope to reap their own fortunes.Their cases are based on the assertion that: (a) Bayer-Monsanto negligently or deliberately failed to warn consumers that the glyphosate it manufactures is carcinogenic; (b) the plaintiffs used Roundup...

WASHINGTON—President Trump proposed a major overhaul of federal environmental permitting, responding to business complaints of bureaucratic delays that have bogged down infrastructure projects such as roads and energy pipelines. “We want to build new roads, bridges and highways bigger and faster,” Mr. Trump said from the White House, adding that the proposal would help create new jobs. But environmentalists assailed the changes to rules tied to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, saying they would weaken standards at a time when climate change is making federal review even more critical. “Forcing federal agencies to ignore environmental threats is a...

EPA and Justice Department Announce $245 Million Agreement for Cleanup at the Allied Paper Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Justice, the Kalamazoo River Natural Resource Trustee Council, and Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) today announced a proposed consent decree that would require NCR Corp. to clean up and fund future response actions at a significant portion of the Allied Paper Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund site.  The consent decree also includes payments related to natural resource damages and past cleanup efforts at the site.  The consent decree is...

No one told Jack LaPant that he could be in violation of the Clean Water Act for farming his own land. That’s mostly because the federal law includes a clear exemption for “normal” farming activities. But it’s also because the government officials LaPant consulted didn’t view overturned dirt that has been tilled and plowed as pollution. In 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers, which administers the Clean Water Act with the Environmental Protection Agency, began legal action against LaPant for plowing he did in 2011 to plant wheat on a ranch property he owned in Northern California. But in March...

BOSTON (CN) – Tensions ran high at First Circuit arguments Tuesday where several judges raised their voices in frustration with the government’s attempts to defend an order that purged scores of academic and nonprofit scientists from the agency’s advisory committees. “You’d like to think that the EPA gave some thought to the effects of its actions, but this was just a fiat,” complained U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta Jr., an Obama appointee. Kayatta described the agency’s attitude as: “well, we’re the EPA, and you’re not.” But the judges took issue as well with the lack of specificity in the case...

Several groups that often are at odds over environmental rules are on the same side when it comes to easing methane regulations at oil and gas sites. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection joined major oil and gas companies, environmental groups and lawmakers from both parties last week in urging the Trump administration not to go through with its proposal to eliminate methane control requirements from well sites and pipelines across the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to roll back rules adopted in 2016 that require companies to identify and stop methane leaks from new and modified...

The era of secret science at EPA is coming to an end,” Pruitt said when announcing the rule. “The ability to test, authenticate, and reproduce scientific findings is vital for the integrity of the rule-making process. Americans deserve to assess the legitimacy of the science underpinning EPA decisions that may impact their lives.”