DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus 84 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump

84 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump

President Trump has made eliminating federal regulations a priority. His administration, with help from Republicans in Congress, has often targeted environmental rules it sees as burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other big businesses.

A New York Times analysis, based on research from Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School and other sources, counts more than 80 environmental rules and regulations on the way out under Mr. Trump.

Our list represents two types of policy changes: rules that were officially reversed and rollbacks still in progress. The Trump administration has released an aggressive schedule to try to finalize many of these rollbacks this year.

The Trump administration has often used a “one-two punch” when rolling back environmental rules, said Caitlin McCoy, a fellow in the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School who tracks regulatory rollbacks. “First a delay rule to buy some time, and then a final substantive rule.”

But the process of rolling back regulations has not always been smooth. In some cases, the administration has failed to provide a strong legal argument in favor of proposed changes or agencies have skipped key steps in the rulemaking process, like notifying the public and asking for comment. In several cases, courts have ordered agencies to enforce their own rules.

Several environmental rules — summarized at the bottom of this page — were rolled back and then later reinstated, often following legal challenges. Other rollbacks remain mired in court.

All told, the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks could significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and lead to thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality every year, according to a recent report prepared by New York University Law School's State Energy and Environmental Impact Center.

Here are the details for each of the policies targeted by the administration so far. Are there rollbacks we missed? Email climateteam@nytimes.com or tweet @nytclimate.

Air pollution and emissions

COMPLETED

1. Canceled a requirement for oil and gas companies to report methane emissions.
Environmental Protection Agency | Read more

2. Revised and partially repealed an Obama-era rule limiting methane emissions on public lands, including intentional venting and flaring from drilling operations.
Interior Department | Read more

3. Loosened a Clinton-era rule designed to limit toxic emissions from major industrial polluters.
E.P.A. | Read more

4. Stopped enforcing a 2015 rule that prohibited the use of hydrofluorocarbons, powerful greenhouse gases, in air-conditioners and refrigerators.
E.P.A. | Read more

5. Repealed a requirement that state and regional authorities track tailpipe emissions from vehicles traveling on federal highways.
Transportation Department | Read more

6. Reverted to a weaker 2009 pollution permitting program for new power plants and expansions.
E.P.A. | Read more

7. Amended rules that govern how refineries monitor pollution in surrounding communities.
E.P.A. | Read more

8. Directed agencies to stop using an Obama-era calculation of the “social cost of carbon” that rulemakers used to estimate the long-term economic benefits of reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Executive Order | Read more

9. Withdrew guidance that federal agencies include greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews. But several district courts have ruled that emissions must be included in such reviews.
Executive Order; Council on Environmental Quality | Read more

10. Lifted a summertime ban on the use of E15, a gasoline blend made of 15 percent ethanol. (Burning gasoline with a higher concentration of ethanol in hot conditions increases smog.)
E.P.A. | Read more

IN PROCESS

11. Proposed weakening Obama-era fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks. The proposal also challenges California’s right to set its own more stringent standards, which other states can choose to follow.
E.P.A. and Transportation Department | Read more

12. Announced intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. (The process of withdrawing cannot be completed until 2020.)
Executive Order | Read more

13. Proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which would have set strict limits on carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. In April 2019, the E.P.A. sent a replacement plan, which would let states set their own rules, to the White House for budget review.
Executive Order; E.P.A. | Read more

14. Proposed eliminating Obama-era restrictions that in effect required newly built coal power plants to capture carbon dioxide emissions.
E.P.A. | Read more

15. Proposed a legal justification for weakening an Obama-era rule that limited mercury emissions from coal power plants.
E.P.A. | Read more

16. Proposed revisions to standards for carbon dioxide emissions from new, modified and reconstructed power plants.
Executive Order; E.P.A. | Read more

17. Began review of emissions rules for power plant start-ups, shutdowns and malfunctions. In April, the E.P.A. filed an order reversing a requirement that 36 states follow the emissions rule.
E.P.A. | Read more

18. Proposed relaxing Obama-era requirements that companies monitor and repair methane leaks at oil and gas facilities.
E.P.A. | Read more

19. Proposed changing rules aimed at cutting methane emissions from landfills. In May, 2019, a federal judge ruled against the E.P.A. for failing to enforce the existing law and gave the agency a fall deadline for finalizing state and federal rules. E.P.A. said it is reviewing the decision.
E.P.A. | Read more

20. Announced a rewrite of an Obama-era rule meant to reduce air pollution in national parks and wilderness areas.
E.P.A. | Read more

21. Weakened oversight of some state plans for reducing air pollution in national parks. (In Texas, the E.P.A. rejected an Obama-era plan that would have required the installation of equipment at some coal-burning power plants to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.)
E.P.A. | Read more

22. Proposed repealing leak-repair, maintenance and reporting requirements for large refrigeration and air conditioning systems containing hydrofluorocarbons.
E.P.A. | Read more

Drilling and extraction

COMPLETED

23. Made significant cuts to the borders of two national monuments in Utah and recommended border and resource management changes to several more.

Presidential Proclamation; Interior Department | Read more
24. Rescinded water pollution regulations for fracking on federal and Indian lands.
Interior Department | Read more

25. Scrapped a proposed rule that required mines to prove they could pay to clean up future pollution.
E.P.A. | Read more

26. Withdrew a requirement that Gulf oil rig owners prove they could cover the costs of removing rigs once they have stopped producing.
Interior Department | Read more

27. Approved construction of the Dakota Access pipeline less than a mile from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Under the Obama administration, the Army Corps of Engineers had said it would explore alternative routes.
Executive Order; Army | Read more

28. Revoked an Obama-era executive order designed to preserve ocean, coastal and Great Lakes waters in favor of a policy focused on energy production and economic growth.
Executive Order | Read more

29. Changed how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considers the indirect effects of greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews of pipelines.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission | Read more

30. Permitted the use of seismic air guns for gas and oil exploration in the Atlantic Ocean. The practice, which can kill marine life and disrupt fisheries, was blocked under the Obama administration.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Read more

31. Loosened offshore drilling safety regulations implemented by the Obama administration following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. The revised rules include reduced testing requirements for blowout prevention systems.
Interior Department | Read more

IN PROCESS

32. Completed preliminary environmental reviews to clear the way for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Congress; Interior Department | Read more

33. Proposed opening most of America’s coastal waters to offshore oil and gas drilling, but delayed the plan after a federal judge ruled that Mr. Trump’s reversal of an Obama-era ban on drilling in the Arctic Ocean was unlawlful.
Interior Department | Read more

34. Lifted an Obama-era freeze on new coal leases on public lands. But, in April 2019, a judge ruled that the Interior Department could not begin selling new leases without completing an environmental review. A month later, the agency published a draft assessment that concluded restarting federal coal leasing would have little environmental impact.
Executive Order; Interior Department | Read more

35. Repealed an Obama-era rule governing royalties for oil, gas and coal leases on federal lands, which replaced a 1980s rule that critics said allowed companies to underpay the federal government. A federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s repeal. The Interior Department is reviewing the decision.
Interior Department | Read more

36. Proposed “streamlining” the approval process for drilling for oil and gas in national forests.
Agriculture Department; Interior Department | Read more

37. Ordered review of regulations on oil and gas drilling in national parks where mineral rights are privately owned.
Executive Order; Interior Department | Read more

38. Recommended shrinking three marine protected areas, or opening them to commercial fishing.
Executive Order; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Read more

39. Ordered review of regulations on offshore oil and gas exploration by floating vessels in the Arctic that were developed after a 2013 accident. The Interior Department said it was “considering full rescission or revision of this rule.”
Executive Order; Interior Department | Read more

40. Approved the Keystone XL pipeline rejected by President Barack Obama, but a federal judge blocked the project from going forward without an adequate environmental review process. Mr. Trump later attempted to side-step the ruling by issuing a presidential permit, but the project remains tied up in court.
Executive Order; State Department | Read more

Infrastructure and planning

COMPLETED

41. Revoked Obama-era flood standards for federal infrastructure projects, like roads and bridges. The standards required the government to account for sea-level rise and other climate change effects.
Executive Order | Read more

42. Relaxed the environmental review process for federal infrastructure projects.
Executive Order | Read more

43. Revoked a directive for federal agencies to minimize impacts on water, wildlife, land and other natural resources when approving development projects.
Executive Order | Read more

44. Revoked an Obama executive order promoting “climate resilience” in the northern Bering Sea region of Alaska, which withdrew local waters from oil and gas leasing and established a tribal advisory council to consult on local environmental issues.
Executive Order | Read more

45. Revoked an Obama executive order that set a goal of cutting the federal government’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent over 10 years.
Executive Order | Read more

46. Reversed an update to the Bureau of Land Management’s public land use planning process.
Congress | Read more

47. Withdrew an Obama-era order to consider climate change in managing natural resources in national parks.
National Park Service | Read more

48. Restricted most Interior Department environmental studies to one year in length and a maximum of 150 pages, citing a need to reduce paperwork.
Interior Department | Read more

49. Withdrew a number of Obama-era Interior Department climate change and conservation policies that the agency said could “burden the development or utilization of domestically produced energy resources.”
Interior Department | Read more

50. Eliminated the use of an Obama-era planning system designed to minimize harm from oil and gas activity on sensitive landscapes, such as national parks.
Interior Department | Read more

51. Eased the environmental review processes for small wireless infrastructure projects with the goal of expanding 5G wireless networks.
Federal Communications Commission | Read more

52. Withdrew Obama-era policies designed to maintain or, ideally improve, natural resources affected by federal projects.
Interior Department | Read more

IN PROCESS

53. Proposed plans to streamline the environmental review process for Forest Service projects.
Agriculture Department | Read more

Animals

COMPLETED

54. Opened nine million acres of Western land to oil and gas drilling by weakening habitat protections for the sage grouse, an imperiled bird with an elaborate mating dance.
Interior Department | Read more

55. Overturned a ban on the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands.
Interior Department | Read more

56. Overturned a ban on the hunting of predators in Alaskan wildlife refuges.
Congress | Read more

57. Ended an Obama-era rule barring hunters on some Alaska public lands from using bait to lure and kill grizzly bears.
National Park Service; Interior Department | Read more

58. Withdrew proposed limits on the number of endangered marine mammals and sea turtles that people who fish could unintentionally kill or injure with sword-fishing nets on the West Coast. In 2018, California issued a state rule prohibiting the use of the nets the rule was intending to regulate.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Read more

59. Amended fishing regulations for a number of species to allow for longer seasons and higher catch rates.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Read more

60. Rolled back a roughly 40-year-old interprentation of a policy aimed at protecting migratory birds, potentially running afoul of treaties with Canada and Mexico.
Interior Department | Read more

61. Overturned a ban on using parts of migratory birds in handicrafts made by Alaskan Natives.
Interior Department | Read more

IN PROCESS

62. Proposed stripping the Endangered Species Act of key provisions.
Interior Department | Read more

63. Proposed relaxing environmental protections for salmon and smelt in California’s Central Valley in order to free up water for farmers.
Executive Order; Interior Department | Read more

Toxic substances and safety

COMPLETED

64. Narrowed the scope of a 2016 law mandating safety assessments for potentially toxic chemicals, like dry-cleaning solvents and paint strippers. The E.P.A. will focus on direct exposure and exclude air, water and ground contamination.
E.P.A. | Read more

65. Reversed an Obama-era rule that required braking system upgrades for “high hazard” trains hauling flammable liquids, like oil and ethanol.
Transportation Department | Read more

66. Removed copper filter cake, an electronics manufacturing byproduct comprised of heavy metals, from the “hazardous waste” list.
E.P.A. | Read more

IN PROCESS

67. Rejected a proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, a potentially neurotoxic pesticide. In August 2018, a federal court ordered the E.P.A. to ban the pesticide, but the agency is appealing the ruling.
E.P.A. | Read more

68. Announced a review of an Obama-era rule lowering coal dust limits in mines. The head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration said there were no immediate plans to change the dust limit, but the review is continuing.
Labor Department | Read more

Water pollution

COMPLETED

69. Revoked a rule that prevented coal companies from dumping mining debris into local streams.
Congress | Read more

70. Withdrew a proposed rule aimed at reducing pollutants, including air pollution, at sewage treatment plants.
E.P.A. | Read more

71. Withdrew a proposed rule requiring groundwater protections for certain uranium mines.
E.P.A. | Read more

72. Weakened federal rules regulating the disposal and storage of coal ash waste from power plants. (A second phase of this rollback is still under way.)
E.P.A. | Read more

IN PROCESS

73. Proposed rolling back protections for certain tributaries and wetlands that the Obama administration wanted covered by the Clean Water Act.
E.P.A.; Army | Read more

74. Delayed by two years an E.P.A. rule regulating limits on toxic discharge, which can include mercury, from power plants into public waterways.
E.P.A. | Read more

75. Ordered the E.P.A. to re-evaluate a section of the Clean Water Act and related guidance that allows states to reject or delay federal projects – including pipelines and other fossil fuel facilities – if they don't meet local water quality goals.
Executive Order; E.P.A. | Read more

Other

COMPLETED

76. Prohibited funding environmental and community development projects through corporate settlements of federal lawsuits.
Justice Department | Read more

77. Announced intent to stop payments to the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations program to help poorer countries reduce carbon emissions.
Executive Order | Read more

78. Reversed restrictions on the sale of plastic water bottles in national parks desgined to cut down on litter, despite a Park Service report that the effort worked.
Interior Department | Read more

IN PROCESS

79. Proposed limiting the studies used by the E.P.A. for rulemaking to only those that make data publicly available. (The move was widely criticized by scientists, who said it would effectively block the agency from considering landmark research that relies on confidential health data.)
E.P.A. | Read more

80. Proposed repealing an Obama-era regulation that nearly doubled the number of light bulbs subject to energy-efficiency standards set to go into effect next year.
Energy Department | Read more

81. Proposed changes to the way cost-benefit analyses are conducted under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and other environmental statutes.
E.P.A. | Read more

82. Delayed compliance dates for federal building efficiency standards until Sept. 30, 2017. No updates have been published, and the status of the rule remains unclear.
Energy Department | Read more

83. Proposed withdrawing efficiency standards for residential furnaces and commercial water heaters designed to reduce energy use.
Energy Department | Read more

84. Initially withdrew then delayed a proposed rule that would inform car owners about fuel-efficient replacement tires. (The Transportation Department has scheduled a new rulemaking notice for 2020.)
Transportation Department | Read more

9 rules were reinstated following lawsuits and other challenges

1. Reinstated a rule aimed at improving safety at facilities that use hazardous chemicals following a federal court order.
E.P.A. | Read more

2. Reversed course on repealing emissions standards for “glider” trucks — vehicles retrofitted with older, often dirtier engines — after Andrew Wheeler took over as head of the E.P.A.
E.P.A. | Read more

3. Delayed a compliance deadline for new national ozone pollution standards by one year, but later reversed course.
E.P.A. | Read more

4. Suspended an effort to lift restrictions on mining in Bristol Bay, Alaska. But the Army Corps of Engineers is performing an environmental review of an application for mining in the area.
E.P.A.; Army | Read more

5. Delayed implementation of a rule regulating the certification and training of pesticide applicators, but a judge ruled that the E.P.A. had done so illegally and declared the rule in effect.
E.P.A. | Read more

6. Initially delayed publishing efficiency standards for household appliances, but later published them after multiple states and environmental groups sued.
Energy Department | Read more

7. Reissued a rule limiting the discharge of mercury by dental offices into municipal sewers after a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group.
E.P.A. | Read more

8. Re-posted a proposed rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft, after initially changing its status to “inactive” on the E.P.A. website. In May 2019, the agency confimed it would issue the rule.
E.P.A. | Read more

9. Removed the Yellowstone grizzly bear from the Endangered Species List, but the protections were later reinstated by a federal judge. (The Trump administration appealed the ruling in May 2019.)
Interior Department | Read more

Note: This list does not include new rules proposed by the Trump administration that do not roll back previous policies, nor does it include court actions that have affected environmental policies independent of executive or legislative action.

Sources: Harvard Law School’s Environmental Regulation Rollback Tracker; Columbia Law School’s Climate Deregulation Tracker; Brookings Institution; Federal Register; Environmental Protection Agency; Interior Department; U.S. Chamber of Commerce; White House.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html

There is no way anyone can tell me that this administration knows the impact of their actions beyond the payoff from the big money behind these moves.

Who needs to worry about the environment? I mean it's only animals, air, water and stuff like that! We don't need any of that crap! Who cares?!

Murica!

I'm certain that all those for profit companies will do the right thing for the planet and future generations.

I guess its up to those in the private sector to take a stand; then they can publicize their environmental responsibility by sticking to regulations that are no longer required....

I doubt it will happen.....but boy that would be nice...

Vail Resorts sustainability goals

In 2017, Vail Resorts updated our sustainability goals. Setting our sights on zero, here are our commitments:

Zero Net Emissions by 2030.
Zero Waste to Landfill by 2030.
Zero Operating Impact on Forests and Habitat.

Not sure how the heck Vail will ever be able to claim zero operating impact on forests with millions of square miles of ski runs across America. But ok, good goals.

Top automakers warn Trump about plan to rollback emissions standards

Many top-selling automakers around the world sent a letter to President Trump on Thursday urging the Trump administration to scrap plans to roll back fuel efficiency standards set during the Obama administration.

In a letter signed by 17 major automakers including General Motors, Ford and Toyota, the companies wrote that a rule cutting back on fuel efficiency standards imposed under the Obama administration would essentially split the nation's auto market in half, as companies would be forced to deal with competing efficiency standards imposed by the federal government and some states that have imposed their own standards, The New York Times reported.

California and more than a dozen other states have adopted their own fuel efficiency standards and are likely to sue the Trump administration to block the rule if it is announced, according to the Times.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to unveil the rule rolling back efficiency standards in the coming weeks, freezing mileage standards for cars around 37 miles per gallon and scrapping plans to raise those targets to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

The letter reportedly urged the Trump administration to resume negotiations with California over the standards, as did a similar letter sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), according to the Times. A spokesman for the White House did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.

"We strongly believe the best path to preserve good auto jobs and keep new vehicles affordable for more Americans is a final rule supported by all parties — including California,” the letter reportedly read.

A spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers told the Times that the auto industry hopes that discussions ahead of the rule's official announcement will allow for a compromised that avoids a divide between states and the federal government.

"Our thinking is, the rule is still being finalized, there is still time to develop a final rule that is good for consumers, policymakers and automakers,” said Gloria Bergquist, the group's vice president.

https://thehill.com/policy/transportatio...sions-standards

I didn't read most of that list, but the part I did was getting me so excited. I just was thinking patriotic music should be playing in the background, 4th of july stuff. Liberty from this environmental bull stuff.

Man, I really don't worship the environment. If you know who God is, you don't have to worry about this false idol of environment stuff, that some folks have taken too far.

All that stuff does is bring down American capitalism, and I mean tall this sincerely, no sarcasm from this post.

I feel like, with every deregulation, freedom sprouts a tiny flower anew.
Cel-le-brate! this Gone! Come ON! (kool and the gang)

Now I'm for all kinds of clean air and stuff, and nice oceans, and free rivers, and reduced smog, but the problem is, almost all of environmental regulation is about tearing down Americas ability to compete in the international marketplace, so if it goes away, We all do better.

And God is in control of all the major stuff anyway, cause I don't believe the lie of evolution, and until the powers that be stop locking on to that lie, I won't believe any thing they say.

It's a real problem, I can't trust, well anybody, company or intstution wise, would be so much better if there were any of them that would tell the truth. (thumbsdown)

Good for you, there's people out there that care more about the environment than they care about, well, priorities.

When I was a child, every car could do a burnout!
A new car would come out, you'd see it going down the street, you'd go, Whoaa, did you see that, the style, the body lines of the car,

Now, the last 15 years, crash test standards? Every car is the same shape, the same body frame, 99%, NOTHING, grabs your eye and has style,

Boring,

insurance companies rule our lives, just look at who has all the commercials. safety,
In the name of safety you can lead a hundred year life in a a padded room, and so can everybody else, but in the end, is that really living?

The best thing about non democrats, is they arent' trying to impose their nose into my home like the democrats do, in the name of, whatever, all they really care about is autocratic power grabs, and making people feel bad. (that's how I see it, )

what happened to Bernie! Where's my Uncle Bernie, on election day?

When the democrats come back, it's going to be such a reversal tyring to undue all of trumps good deeds, but hey, if you need the environment that much, just wait 8 years until the democrats come back, right after they get done tearing down that wall.

Happy and Sad at the same time.

God? That's your answer? Pray that things stay safe and get better while greed and corruption poison the environment and kill of all life? Yeah that sounds like "God's plan".

Don't bother replying to me because we have NO COMMON GROUND as I live in reality.

I honestly couldn’t believe what I was reading. It’s insanity encapsulated in a single post.
My father says similar scary crap. God has a plan. He says. We won’t destroy the planet faster than God’s plan. He’s going to make it new again anyway.
What?! Psychopath much?

A lot of Christianity is based in eschatology.

I dunno.

I hear it will take us 20 years to get together the necessary Trillions of Dollars to fix Climate Change but the wacky Left is telling me we only have 12 years left before we are doomed.

So why bother?

Save the unborn... ruin their home.

That is a ridiculous take and one of many reasons why the 'climate change' hoax gains traction only from the fanatical.

You see, normal people have got to take the loony Left with a grain of salt as you lie and play politics with everything these days.

Here is a perfect example as pointed out by one of your own...

Democrats have grown expert in these Trump days at creating fake scandals. So it’s refreshing to read a previously undisclosed email in which Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a presidential aspirant, destroys a leading narrative even as she highlights her own party’s excesses.

The “scandal” here involves Twin Metals Minnesota, which holds two mineral leases on government land outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the northeastern part of the state. The Interior Department had renewed the leases continuously for decades. But when Twin Metals got serious about a mine, the Obama administration jumped into bed with green activists who ardently opposed it.

In 2014, Interior delayed the renewals, calling for more “study.” In early 2016, the department’s solicitor issued a howler of a legal opinion, granting the government new authority to deny Twin Metals automatic lease renewals. It was an Obama extralegal classic: The opinion ignored precedent, existing rights and regular procedure. In a midnight kiss to green activists, the department officially blocked the leases on Dec. 15, 2016.

This highly irregular decision was destined to get a fresh look from the Trump team. The new president’s appointees at the Interior and Agricultural departments all came to office determined to restore the law and regulatory certainty. In December 2017, the new Interior principal deputy solicitor found the prior opinion fatally flawed and moved to renew Twin Metals’ leases. The company moved on to an arduous environmental review, and it could still be blocked by the feds or the state. Beyond some furious greens, that should have been the end of the matter.

Instead, we are in an age where every move by the executive branch is judged not on the policy merits but on a “corruption” scale. Early in 2017, stories started popping up about how Twin Metals was controlled by the family of a Chilean billionaire. And that billionaire also owns a house in Washington, which he rents out to . . . Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Scandal! Payoff! Sleaze!

It didn’t matter to critics that the Chilean doesn’t know the Trumps, that Ivanka Trump and Mr. Kushner have never met their landlord, or that they pay a market rent of $15,000 a month. Nor did it matter that the decision was an obvious one for the Trump team to reconsider on the merits, or that the new opinion was rock-solid and corrected a legal embarrassment.

Democrats and activists have instead spun this as straight-up cronyism. Green groups routinely slam the decision as a favor to “Ivanka’s landlord.” Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton decried the “shameful reversal” as proof that “big corporate money and special-interest influence now rule again.” House Democrats sent letters to Interior and Agriculture Secretaries David Bernhardt and Sonny Perdue harping on the landlord question. The goal is to gin up a scandal of the type activists used to run out other Trump appointees.

Enter Ms. Klobuchar. Or, at least enter an email she wrote to then-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Dec. 16, 2016, the day after the leases were blocked. Government sources provided me this missive, in which a furious Ms. Klobuchar punctures the scandal narrative and skewers her own party for putting politics ahead of the law.

Ms. Klobuchar bluntly states that the decision not to renew the lease “just floored me. Trump will reverse this. When you guys leave and are out talking about a job message for rural America, I will be left with the mess and dealing with the actual jobs. But you guys sure got a good story in the New York Times.” She’s the one who has to run for re-election in a state that still values its mining industry.

She lectures Mr. Vilsack that this “should have been handled through the normal process. It wasn’t.” She notes that she’d asked written questions in July but got no response. She brutally observes that the failure to do this right is “most likely . . . why we have the trump administration to begin with.” She also snaps: “Who cares about answering some pesky questions from a woman senator from the Midwest when you guys and the White House and the activists have all the politics down, right?”

She notes that the company “had had the leases for years,” that the situation “will now end up in a lawsuit,” and that “trump will reverse the decision or a court will.” She adds: “I am not for or against this project but I just wanted a fair process based on science that told us the truth.” (A Klobuchar staffer says the senator “has serious concerns about this project being so close to the Boundary Waters and has always wanted a thorough environmental review,” and “does not believe the Trump administration will move forward in good faith to protect the environment.”)

Here is a Democratic lawmaker, steeped in a home-state issue, calling this what it was: an Obama administration perversion of policy and law, done to appease green donors. She reminds Mr. Vilsack that Republicans will reverse the decision, for the obvious reason that this did not go through a “normal” or “fair” process. The Democrats and activists decrying this “scandal” also know this, although we don’t have the benefit of their private correspondence.

Remember this story next time the left hurls another “corruption” accusation. Hard as it is for many to accept, Trump administration officials often act on what they believe to be sound policy. No ulterior motive required.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/a-democrat-deflates-a-trump-scandal

Don't respond to this horrible crap Trump is doing! Here, respond to my finger pointing old ass BS that Fox News drug up as a talking point to fill in between Trump sound bites on Hannity! We actually made a semi intelligible story out of it!

When their grandkids are cursing them for refusing to help support saving the planet they will be forced to try and exist on, maybe they'll finally wake up and admit climate change is real.

Nope. They’ll have ‘gotten theirs’. It’s dog eat dog to them.

You guys sure like to turn silly after having some truth fed to you.

There's a certain sector in our society that actually believes every conspiracy theory thrown their way. The deep state. The climate change hoax. Man never walked on the moon and Elvis isn't dead. Without these huge conspiracy theories they would be like everyone else and they can't accept overwhelming evidence. Instead they feel the world is out to get them.

They can look at evidence that Trump has committed obstruction and then swear that evidence doesn't exist. They can hear and watch him lie over and over again then believe every word he udders. He rants like some petulant child who sounds like a third grader on the playground and attack anyone and everyone who questions him. Even those in his own party.

Yet when you point those things out, having a firm grasp of the obvious, they'll claim you're the one who is deranged. It defies any sort of logic.

You wouldn't know the truth if it bit you in your azz.

More silly.

When I listen to one of your own and she tells me how foolish you are, what more can anyone say?

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Dem, a presidential aspirant, destroys a leading narrative even as she highlights her own party’s excesses.

You're obviously confused about who "one of my own" is. I supported a Republican Gov. in my own state for a long time. Not the new one but the past one.

Unlike you, I don't allow a party to lead me around by the nose.

I have read your posts and you sound like Damanshot.

He always claimed he was a Republican too.

Well do have fun getting back to your mud pies.

I don't claim to be either. I'll leave that to all of you sheeple.

https://www.businessinsider.com/miami-floods-sea-level-rise-solutions-2018-4

There are some beautiful pictures in that story

There is another story on CBS Miami that another study concludes that Miami itself along with Key West and part of the Key islands could very well be underwater in the next 25-30 years-and there is 30 other cities that could be underwater by 2060-and they are already experiencing different issues with sunny day flooding, high tide flooding, coastal storm flooding-

Yeah right. . . the "Hoax" of climate change is only believed by the fringe fanatics?

Sorry this is wiki - but it was the easiest simplest presentation of 'world' view including the USA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_opinion_by_country

Clearly it's the loony fanatics on the fringe that make up over 40% most places....

I guess you belong to the same group as the well educated and free people of China where it's 18% that think climate change is a serious problem.

Something else I totally don't understand....

Human beings have dominated the natural landscape of this planet for centuries....We literally bend nature to our will in pursuit of our own interests... In doing so, we have put our stamp on nearly everything, our existence and technologies have affected everything around us...literally everything...…

oh, except the climate...there's no way we could've possibly affected that....

Now this is some forward thinking. We are going to just pick up everything south of the everglades and just move it. And Boston, and New York City, and Charleston, and Norfolk....etc


(CNN)Secretary of State Mike Pompeo downplayed climate change as a longstanding trend, suggesting that that modern societies could adapt to a changing environment, possibly with people moving to different places.

"The climate's been changing a long time. There's always changes that take place," Pompeo said during an interview with the Washington Times published Friday, when asked whether he thought climate change was man-made and how best to address it. He did not mention anything about man-made pollution in his remarks.
"Societies reorganize, we move to different places, we develop technology and innovation," he added. "I am convinced, I am convinced that we will do the things necessary as the climate changes."
When asked about a potential technological solution, Pompeo replied that "it's not just technological" and cited the Netherlands, which are partially below sea level, as an example of a successful response.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/07/politics/pompeo-climate-change-washington-times/index.html

j/c

It's odd that most everyone believes that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Until you start talking about the health of our planet. The suddenly, all bets are off.