regulations


Photo: Wikimedia

As Methane Levels in the Atmosphere Soar, Trump Administration Moves to Gut Regulations

, fellow

July 1, 2019 10:02 AM EDT

UPDATE (August 29, 2019): Today the Environmental Protection Agency issued a new proposed rule that would loosen safeguards on methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. This proposal would allow increased methane emissions from oil and gas operations and weaken efforts to fight climate change. Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Climate and Energy program at UCS, responds to this latest development.

 

Until recently, carbon dioxide has earned top billing among global warming gases. Emitted when fossil fuels burn, it remains the most prevalent heat-trapping emission driving climate change. Its concentration in the atmosphere has now reached levels unseen for three million years, helping to usher in an unprecedented decline in plant and animal species, according to a recent major United Nations report. Recent science is adding another gas to the marquee: methane. Just as we are learning how desperately we need to curb this gas, the Trump administration wants to kick the oil and gas industry’s methane standards to the curb.

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Photo: WIkimedia
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Photo: Daniels, Gene/ The U.S. National Archives

Trump Administration Takes Aim at Public Health Protections

, Senior Energy analyst

August 14, 2018 2:15 PM EDT

In a new regulatory effort, the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims to be working to increase consistency and transparency in how it considers costs and benefits in the rulemaking process. Don’t be fooled. Under the cover of these anodyne goals, the agency is in fact trying to pursue something far more nefarious. Indeed, what the EPA is actually working to do is formalize a process whereby the decision of whether or not to go ahead with a rule is permanently tilted in industry’s favor. How? By slashing away at what the agency can count as “benefits,” resulting in a full-on broadside to public health. Read more >

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Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

New Evidence Shows Just How Bad the Trump Administration is at Governing

, Senior policy and legal analyst

June 13, 2018 10:11 AM EDT

President Trump likes to brag about how many regulations his administration is removing. The President’s “2 for 1” order requires federal agencies to revoke two regulations for every new rule they want to issue. This order is aimed at getting “rid of the redundancy and duplication that wastes your time and money.” Call me crazy, but I’d like to keep the regulations on the books that protect consumers, safeguard clean air and water, and keep our kids safe. Regardless of what the Trump Administration boasts, a dive into the data shows just how ineffective the President has been at both enacting and removing regulations. Read more >

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The Regulatory Accountability Act Subverts Science and Must Be Stopped

, Deputy director, Center for Science & Democracy

April 26, 2017 11:04 AM EDT

Today, just four days after hundreds of thousands of people marched for science, the Senate introduced a bill that would substitute politics for scientific judgment in every decision the government makes about public health and the environment. If enacted, the legislation would cripple the government’s ability to effectively carry out laws that protect us, putting everyone at more risk, especially communities of color and low-income communities that are more exposed to threats. Read more >

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Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury, “Galileo before the Holy Office” (1847)
Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury, “Galileo before the Holy Office” (1847)

The Inquisition Congress, Abetted by Trump, Has Begun

, Deputy director, Center for Science & Democracy

January 6, 2017 3:54 PM EDT

The increasingly reckless House of Representatives, caught up in a public mutiny, may have walked back its abandonment of congressional ethics. But it simultaneously took several other steps that will enable corruption and greatly expand political influence over the work of experts at NASA, NOAA, EPA, and other science agencies, compromising their ability to serve the public interest. Read more >

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