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  • Why the EPA exists

    In today's politically charged era and the fact that many regulations once in place have been removed or changed to better suit the business world, we see why some government agencies were started.
    They were started to protect the citizens against those that place profit first and health concerns last.
    They were started to help Mother Earth recover from decades of pollution and abuse.
    They were started to stop the destruction of our air, land and water.
    There are two great quotes from past Presidents about pollution.
    "We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water,” Nixon said in his 1970 State of the Union address. “The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called."
    As President Ronald Reagan put it in his 1984 State of the Union address: "Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it's common sense."
    You really must click the link and see the pictures from just this one area that was so polluted that junk cars lined the banks of the river, the water was black and the smoke filled the air everywhere. Seeing those pictures will tell you why we need a strong EPA.

    The Cuyahoga River caught fire 50 years ago today. These stomach-churning photos highlight why the EPA exists.
    Fifty years ago today, on June 22, 1969, the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire.
    At the time, the river was one of the most polluted in the US. Journalists filled glasses with pitch-black river water, while politicians dipped cloth into the waves that came up oil-soaked.
    The river fire lasted roughly 20 minutes, but it sparked public outrage that in part led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the federal office tasked with making sure "Americans have clean air, land, and water."
    Take a look at what the Cuyahoga River - and other waters around the US - looked like before the EPA existed.
    https://amp.businessinsider.com/vint...ore-epa-2019-6
    Last edited by fxstc07; 06-23-2019, 08:47 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Why the EPA exists

    Originally posted by fxstc07 View Post
    In today's politically charged era and the fact that many regulations once in place have been removed or changed to better suit the business world, we see why some government agencies were started.
    They were started to protect the citizens against those that place profit first and health concerns last.
    They were started to help Mother Earth recover from decades of pollution and abuse.
    They were started to stop the destruction of our air, land and water.
    There are two great quotes from past Presidents about pollution.



    You really must click the link and see the pictures from just this one area that was so polluted that junk cars lined the banks of the river, the water was black and the smoke filled the air everywhere. Seeing those pictures will tell you why we need a strong EPA.

    The Cuyahoga River caught fire 50 years ago today. These stomach-churning photos highlight why the EPA exists.


    https://amp.businessinsider.com/vint...ore-epa-2019-6
    Great article fxstc07.

    Sent from my SM-J327T using Tapatalk

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    • #3
      Re: Why the EPA exists

      Interesting story about the lawyers that have challenged many of the environmental policies that Trump wanted to change.

      Meet the Lawyers Beating Back Trump’s Reckless Environmental Policies — and Winning
      Drew Caputo was sitting on the couch at his home in the Bay Area watching the election returns on November 8th, 2016. As soon as it became apparent Trump was going to win, Caputo, a senior lawyer with the group Earthjustice, had two immediate thoughts: The first was that a Trump administration would be nothing short of a disaster for the environment, climate, and public health.
      Caputo and his colleagues quickly identified several critical issues that Trump might go after and formed internal teams to prepare for the worst. One potential disaster, he and his colleagues envisioned, was the undoing of the Obama administration’s efforts to protect parts of the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans from oil and gas exploration. Even before Trump was sworn in, lawyers at Earthjustice had started lining up potential plaintiffs and honing their arguments to block a fossil-fuel free-for-all in the fragile ocean waters. “We knew the Trump guys would be an environmental wrecking crew and we wanted to be in a position to respond immediately,” Caputo says.
      Sure enough, in April 2017, Trump signed an executive order to throw open the Arctic and parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for oil exploration. Within a week, Earthjustice and a coalition of groups including the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, and Natural Resources Defense Council sued Trump to block the order.
      Almost two years later, a federal judge struck down a key section of Trump’s executive order, calling it “unlawful and invalid.” The Obama-era protections would “remain in full force and effect unless and until revoked by Congress.”
      Consider the raw numbers: Since Trump took office, the Natural Resources Defense Council has sued the administration — including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Commerce and Interior and Energy departments, and yes the president himself —more than 90 times. That’s one lawsuit every 10.8 days. Of the 53 cases that have been resolved, NRDC has won 49 of them. That’s a 92 percent win rate.
      Earthjustice, for its part, sued the administration 120 times in the first two years of the Trump presidency. In the 17 cases where there’s been a major decision, Earthjustice has won 16 times and the administration just once.
      https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...inning-887321/

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      • #4
        Re: Why the EPA exists

        THIS must be all the winning Trump was talking about?

        Sent from my SM-J327T using Tapatalk

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        • #5
          Re: Why the EPA exists

          Originally posted by 222lifer View Post
          THIS must be all the winning Trump was talking about?

          Sent from my SM-J327T using Tapatalk

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          • #6
            Re: Why the EPA exists

            Maybe it is just another agency to do the Brown Shirts bidding.

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...9a0_story.html

            Trump officials notified California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday that the state is “failing to meet its obligations” to protect the environment, just days after the president mocked its biggest cities for their “tremendous pollution.”

            The unusual move by the Environmental Protection Agency ratchets up the Trump administration’s ongoing battle against the nation’s most populous state, a multipronged assault that Newsom has described as “weaponizing” the federal government. The fight extends from immigration to environmental policy and involves agencies ranging from the Justice Department to the Department of Homeland Security and EPA.

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            • #7
              Re: Why the EPA exists

              Coal ash ?
              Anybody know what it is ? Do you know how harmful it can be ?
              This administration wants to lift, or relax, some of the regulations.

              Study finds mixing coal ash, water, yields toxic mix
              CASPER – Mixing fresh water and Powder River Basin coal ash together yields a slurry full of contaminants at levels dangerous to human health, new research from Duke University found. The dusty waste produced when power plants burn coal is often disposed in dry landfills or ponds, including at several facilities across Wyoming.
              Scientists at the Nicholas School of the Environment tested the toxicity of coal fly ash from several major coal basins, including the Powder River Basin. The preliminary results revealed that combining coal fly ash with water produces a concoction replete with hexavalent chromium, arsenic and other chemicals. In the study, Powder River Basin coal ash hosted the highest concentrations of hexavalent chromium. The contaminant is considered “carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization.
              The scientist cautioned the regulatory body to reconsider its proposed rollback of an Obama-era coal ash rule set to protect human health and water quality around the country. Since the introduction of coal ash controls in 2015, utility companies operating coal-fired power plants must carefully dispose of the waste product without harming the surrounding environment, water or communities.
              The Trump administration announced it planned to consider petitions to relax some of these federal regulations in 2017.
              https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/fro...ef54e7d66.html

              From the other side of the country, the citizens of North Carolina worry about a thyroid cancer cluster around the Duke energy plant and it's dumping of coal ash in unprotected pits.

              What Does The EPA's Plan To Change How Companies Dispose Of Coal Ash Mean For NC?
              The EPA's proposal on coal ash disposal, in a nutshell, would remove its limit on how many tons of coal ash a company like Duke can put in one place.
              https://www.wfae.org/post/what-does-...an-nc#stream/0

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              • #8
                Re: Why the EPA exists

                Now you might think I put this in the wrong thread.
                Actually I didn't know which thread to place this, so this is it.
                What exactly is this administration hiding ? Is this the transparency Trump always talks about ?

                Week 147: Trump Officials Stonewall Investigators . . . at the EPA
                Ryan Jackson, chief of staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, refuses to meet with the agency’s inspector general. His primary rationale? The IG, who is responsible for investigating waste, abuses of power, and other illegality inside the EPA, won’t tell Jackson exactly what the meeting is about.
                Jackson himself is currently involved in at least two inspector general investigations. Last week, Politico reported that the EPA inspector general is looking into whether Jackson routinely destroyed documents that he was legally required to maintain. The missing documents allegedly include schedules from top EPA brass and correspondence with lobbyists like Richard Smotkin, who helped arrange a junket to Morocco for disgraced EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and was then promptly hired as a foreign agent by the government of Morocco. You can see why the Trump administration might want any communications with Smotkin to disappear.
                Winston Smith, the protagonist of the dystopian classic 1984, had a job in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth deleting all historical references to people who had become enemies of the state. They became, to use George Orwell’s word, “unpersons.” The Trump administration is creating unscience—science that is erased from the public memory because it doesn’t conform to the ruling party’s agenda.
                Responding to an audience member at the Economic Club of New York this week, President Donald John Trump—I’m using his full name so you don’t think this is a case of mistaken identity—declared, “I’m very much into climate.”
                He also said, “I consider myself in many ways to be an environmentalist,” before calling environmentalists “loco.”
                “I think I know more about the environment than most people,” Trump continued.
                https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/week-14...bm9yPclbB1ik5w

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                • #9
                  Re: Why the EPA exists

                  He is fricking nuts!!!

                  Responding to an audience member at the Economic Club of New York this week, President Donald John Trump—I’m using his full name so you don’t think this is a case of mistaken identity—declared, “I’m very much into climate.”
                  He also said, “I consider myself in many ways to be an environmentalist,” before calling environmentalists “loco.”
                  “I think I know more about the environment than most people,” Trump continued.
                  https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/week-14...bm9yPclbB1ik5w

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                  • #10
                    Re: Why the EPA exists

                    Originally posted by ABFwife View Post
                    We must remember that Trump relies on his "gut" for advice. Trump's gut has produced more toxic emissions than anything on the planet.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Why the EPA exists

                      This makes me sick ! If poisoning our water with coal slurry run off isn't enough. Relaxing coal emissions from power plants will choke us to death. Open our National lands to private investment to rape and pillage our national treasures for profit isn't enough. Refuting claims that noxious chemicals aren't to blame for cancers isn't enough.
                      Now there is this. And I must ask why ? I don't live in the wild. I'm not a hunter. But wildlife is a national treasure to me.

                      Sign the Petition to Ban 'Cyanide Bombs'
                      Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has shirked its duty to protect wildlife, people and pets. In spite of public opposition, the EPA just reauthorized the use of barbaric M-44 "cyanide bombs" to kill wildlife.

                      We've helped restrict M-44s in four states and we're fighting to ban them nationwide, once and for all.
                      https://act.biologicaldiversity.org/...urceid=1006271

                      Trump Administration Reauthorizes Wildlife-killing M-44 ‘Cyanide Bombs’ Despite Strong Opposition
                      The Trump administration has reauthorized use of sodium cyanide in wildlife-killing devices called M-44s. These “cyanide bombs” received approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency despite inhumanely and indiscriminately killing thousands of animals every year. They have also injured people.
                      “Cyanide traps can’t be used safely by anyone, anywhere,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “While the EPA added some restrictions, these deadly devices have caused too much harm to remain in use. We need a permanent nationwide ban to protect people, pets and imperiled wildlife from this poison.”
                      https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/ne...on-2019-08-07/

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                      • #12
                        Re: Why the EPA exists

                        Appears the EPA wants to roll back some workers protections from poison exposure. No surprise.

                        Workers, Idahoans could have less pesticide protection if EPA rolls back this regulation
                        Federal regulations intended to protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure and drift seemed to fail to protect a group of Idaho farmworkers last year. Now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a series of changes that advocates say would weaken those protections.
                        In November, the EPA announced plans for “narrow updates” to federal worker protection laws that govern safe pesticide spray, opening the proposed changes to public comment. Most of the changes relate to the Application Exclusion Zone — the part of the EPA Worker Protection Standard dictating where pesticide applicators are allowed to spray when people are nearby.
                        Depending on whether the pesticide is sprayed from the air or on the ground, current EPA regulations generally ban pesticide applicators from spraying within 25-100 feet of any people, although rules also vary based on conditions, spray height and the pesticide in use.
                        “EPA’s proposed changes would remove protection for people and bystanders not in the field being sprayed, even if they are within the protection zone,” wrote the United Farm Workers labor union in a Jan. 17 call for supporters to oppose the rollback.
                        https://www.southernminn.com/around_...4374d9c68.html

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                        • #13
                          Re: Why the EPA exists

                          Largest maker of pesticide linked to brain damage in kids to stop producing chemical

                          Announcement comes after Trump administration reversed plans to ban chlorpyrifos and rejected scientific conclusions of experts


                          https://www.theguardian.com/environm...administration


                          The world’s largest manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, an agricultural pesticide linked to brain damage in children, has announced that it will stop producing the chemical by the end of the year.

                          The announcement on Thursday by Corteva, the corporation formed from a Dow Chemical and DuPont merger, comes after the Trump administration reversed regulatory plans to ban the pesticide and rejected the scientific conclusions of US government experts.

                          Chlorpyrifos is a neurotoxic chemical that was found to be harmful enough to humans that the US banned it from residential use in 2000. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), however, has continued to defend its safety for agricultural uses.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Why the EPA exists

                            Originally posted by RedRollingRoadblock View Post
                            Largest maker of pesticide linked to brain damage in kids to stop producing chemical

                            Announcement comes after Trump administration reversed plans to ban chlorpyrifos and rejected scientific conclusions of experts


                            https://www.theguardian.com/environm...administration
                            About time !
                            Now maybe the EPA could get back to it's original mission. To protect us form those whose only mission in life is profits over health.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Why the EPA exists

                              Thanks Trump ! Another slash to the programs meant to help the citizens and their health issues due to corporate greed.

                              Trump calls for slashing funding for toxic Superfund cleanup
                              President Donald Trump asked Congress on Monday to slash funding for the Superfund program around the country, despite already building up the biggest backlog in 15 years of hazardous waste clean-ups stalled for lack of money.
                              Overall, the president proposed cutting $2.4 billion, or 26%, out of the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump vowed as a candidate to cut all but “little tidbits” of the EPA in a push to eliminate regulations he sees as burdening businesses. As president he has called annually for cuts nearing one-third of the agency's budget.
                              Trump's budget statement to Congress said his latest pared-back budget request for EPA “advances work on key priority areas, while reigning (sic) in unnecessary spending."
                              Maybe the corporate polluters could start dumping their filth and waste at Mar-a Little man resort in Florida ?

                              https://news.yahoo.com/trump-calls-s...173427614.html

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