It appears to be like like the following EPA head will seemingly be Lee Zeldin, a former New York Congressman and failed gubernatorial candidate, and he’s already promising coverage strikes that might make the air dirtier and enhance well being and gas prices for People.
The nominee doesn’t have a very intensive environmental background, with out a whole lot of particular advocacy on environmental subjects.
Because of this, varied environmental safety organizations have launched statements mentioning his poor file on environmental laws up to now and expressing concern at his seemingly harmful rollbacks to come back. In 2020, whereas he was in Congress, he acquired the worst environmental rating out of your entire New York congressional delegation.
Estimations of the probability of those harmful actions will be knowledgeable by the interval between 2017-2021, which was marked by extreme corruption by two EPA heads with deep ties to the oil & gasoline and coal industries.
The primary of these EPA heads, Scott Pruitt, gained prominence by suing the EPA to cease clear air, and in his tenure ended up being so corrupt that he was compelled to resign – fairly a feat on condition that administration’s over 3,700 conflicts of curiosity.
The second, Andrew Wheeler, was a coal lobbyist who tried to orchestrate a $70 billion bailout for the coal trade and confirmed unimaginable ignorance and lying when discussing the state of his personal company’s rules.
What we do learn about Zeldin’s plans had been introduced this morning, when he famous to the media that he desires to tug again on the EPA rules of the final 4 years.
Whereas we don’t know what particular rules he intends to focus on, it’s seemingly that there can be sweeping and/or scattershot actions to cut back the progress of the final 4 years. Rules carried out by the EPA underneath President Biden will save People $250B/12 months in well being and power prices and save 200k lives in whole.
Rolling again these rules, as Zeldin has mentioned he desires to do, would value People cash within the type of greater well being and gas prices, and would trigger extra dying.
The rationale these rollbacks would trigger extra dying and better prices is as a result of they might enhance air air pollution, which is a significant driver of dying and illness and a significant drain on financial productiveness. The rollbacks would additionally enhance prices as a result of the focused rules are centered on effectivity, and decreasing effectivity means greater power prices for the nation in whole.
We additionally know that Zeldin has acquired the same amount of cash from the oil & gasoline trade as Trump’s first corrupt EPA choose. Zeldin has acquired $269,608 in lifetime political bribes from the Oil & Gasoline trade – not his largest chunk of donations when sorted by trade, however nonetheless important. That is much like the price on corrupt oil & gasoline stooge Scott Pruitt, who earned round $300k in bribes from oil & gasoline for his work to advance soiled air previous to his appointment as chief saboteur of the EPA.
In change for these comparatively low pricetags, the richest and most harmful trade within the historical past of the world – which receives over $700 billion in subsidies yearly within the US alone – acquired important boosts from harmful actions on the company that’s tasked with preserving the air you breathe clear.
Alongside his statements as we speak, Zeldin additionally mentioned that may make these rollbacks “whereas defending entry to scrub air and water,” nevertheless it stays to be seen how that’s attainable. On condition that the precise coverage actions he has already prompt are extremely harmful to scrub air, this explicit quote rings as if it could be unfaithful. He additionally mentioned one thing about synthetic intelligence, which it’s unclear what the EPA has something to do with (until he was referring to doing one thing in regards to the huge pointless power use from the sector, however that appears unlikely).
Zeldin mentioned that he desires to make sure US “power dominance,” which is unlikely to occur with any technique that focuses away from the applied sciences of the long run. The EPA’s actions of the final 4 years, and President Biden’s actions as a complete, have all coalesced round a method of bringing EV and battery manufacturing to the US in order that the US will be prepared to offer the merchandise of the long run.
Mr. Trump, in distinction, is already searching for to roll again the insurance policies which have efficiently led to a whole bunch of billions in funding and a whole bunch of hundreds of jobs in inexperienced trade, regardless of him being unaware of what these insurance policies are within the first place.
Whereas in Congress, Zeldin voted in opposition to the Inflation Discount Act, the invoice that introduced these jobs and billions in funding to the US. However in yet one more piece of Orwellian doublespeak, Zeldin mentioned as we speak that he desires to “deliver again American jobs to the auto trade,” regardless of it being clear that he and Mr. Trump each need to roll again insurance policies which have introduced again American jobs to the auto trade.
All that mentioned, Zeldin additionally was a member of a bipartisan “local weather options caucus” in 2016, and voted in opposition to a republican modification to slash EPA funding in 2020. So it’s not all unhealthy, it’s simply 86% unhealthy.
And there’s yet another silver lining right here. Earlier this 12 months, the “Supreme” Court docket stupidly opined that authorities businesses must be restrained of their potential to do their jobs when it eradicated one thing known as the Chevron doctrine.
You’ll be able to learn extra about that right here, however briefly, the opinion would make it tougher for EPA to vary rules going ahead. So Zeldin may need his work lower out for him, as he’ll seemingly need to battle in opposition to the scientists at his personal company and the courts to implement the dirty-air insurance policies that he has already indicated he desires to implement.
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