Six Former Republican & Democratic EPA Heads Call For a Policy "Reset" at the Environmental Agency

Six former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] who served under both Republican & Democratic Presidents issued a report yesterday, calling for a "reset" at the agency to address the nation's growing list of environmental challenges. While the letter and report didn't specifically name Donald Trump as the problem, the recommendations for change addressed many of the policies the current administration has implemented, including Trump's efforts to undermine scientific research, reduce clean air and water standards and politicize the agency.

Washington Post: "Some of the reset recommendations were aimed at the Trump era, such as minimizing industry and political influence on science-based decisions in regulatory actions, combating climate change and cutting air pollution with electric vehicles, and others. The proposals are in line with critics’ complaints about Trump and with many of Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden’s proposals."

Trump's current EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, immediately rejected the report. He has argued that America needs to relax its environmental standards to help businesses, especially those in the coal, gas and oil industries, become more competitive. However, many scientists, health officials and environmentalists disagree.

Washington Post: "Nationally, many public health officials, environmental groups, Democratic lawmakers, scientists and others disagree, saying Trump’s regulation-cutting, combined with sharp drops in many areas of enforcement against polluters, is increasing air and water pollutants and industrial toxins and jeopardizing the health of Americans."

As we have written before, of the many issues that will be debated this Fall, few are as important and clear-cut as environmental policy. The differences between four more years of Donald Trump and a Biden administration are stark. Biden's EPA will err on the side of public health. Trump has continuously demonstrated that he will protect the interests of the energy industry and mining companies. And, yes, it really is as simple as that, as the EPA administrators from the Reagan, Bush [both], Clinton and Obama administrations made quite clear in their report yesterday. And, back in June, the former Republican Governor of New Jersey and EPA head Christine Todd Whitman explained to Congress just how dangerous Trump's policies are.

AP: “The EPA on the track it’s on ... is endangering public health,” Christine Todd Whitman, EPA administrator under George W. Bush, told the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee. Whitman said she was “deeply concerned that five decades of environmental progress are at risk because of the attitudes and approach of this administration.”

#news #environment

By: Don Lam & Curated Content