WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is doing away with a decades-old air emissions policy opposed by fossil fuel companies, a move that environmental groups say will result in more pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued notice Thursday it is withdrawing the “once-in always-in” policy under the Clean Air Act, which dictated how major sources of hazardous air pollutants are regulated. Under the EPA’s new interpretation, such “major sources” can be reclassified as “area sources” when their emissions fall below mandated limits, subjecting them to differing standards.
EPA Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum says the change will “reduce regulatory burden for industries and the states.” Wehrum previously worked as a lawyer representing oil, gas and coal companies.
Environmentalists say the move will dramatically weaken standards for smokestack emissions of arsenic, lead and mercury.
That’s true, in much the same way that putting money in bank vaults reduces robbers’ economic opportunities.
I feel like I’m in a time machine that’s in a free fall.
Am I wrong…dont these people have to breathe clean air and drink potable water…do they have kids and grand children?
. . . while it drastically increases the health care burden on everybody else.
They really do seem to act as if they live on a different planet. Of course, in a lot of cases pollution is mostly limited to poor areas. But the global stuff is them too, and they just can’t grasp it.
Maybe if you marooned them in the middle of the pacific plastic swamp.