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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump EPA to rollback Obama-era protections for thousands of waterways and wetlands
EPA to roll back protections in rewrite of Obama-era water rule
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/420380-epa-to-roll-back-protections-in-rewrite-of-obama-era-water-rule
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to unveil a new proposal that would roll back major federal protections for thousands of U.S. waterways and wetlands. The Trump administration is expected to rewrite a major national water rule imposed by former President Obama in 2015, The Associated Press reported Saturday.
The outlet obtained a set of White House talking points for the proposed new water rule, which indicate that the Trump administration is stripping federal protections for waterways. The White House talking points reportedly argue that the "previous administrations 2015 rule wasnt about water quality," according to the AP. It was about power - power in the hands of the federal government over farmers, developers, and landowners, the statement indicates.
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Jan Goldman-Carter, senior director of wetlands and water resources at the National Wildlife Federation, told the AP that about 60 percent of the stream miles in the continental U.S. would no longer be protected. The proposed rollback would also strip protection for half of the U.S. wetlands, Goldman-Carter said. She called it an an unprecedented rollback of Clean Water Act protections.
Environmental groups say the Obama-era rule helps protect remote and sometimes dry creek and wetlands, which help protect major downstream lakes and rivers from pollutants, runoffs of fertilizer and oil spills, the AP noted. The protections helped shield humans from droughts, floods and hurricanes, according to the outlet. The 2015 measure also worked toward cleaning up larger bodies of water, like the Chesapeake Bay.
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duforsure
(11,885 posts)... doing the same thing on a national scale what happened in Flint, and this is going to leave them all accountable when its all showing they did this to our environment knowing it will cause adverse and deadly heath results from their actions to the American people, and will be facing many legal issues for doing this to us all for profits over people.
samnsara
(17,623 posts)Vinca
(50,285 posts)And it's all totally unnecessary and only being done for 2 reasons: Obama's rule elimination and gift to money-grubbing donors who pollute.
UncleTomsEvilBrother
(945 posts)For clicks and ratings, journalists constantly use "Obama-era" in the headline. They do this in order to politicize the issue.
By doing that, readers are focused more on the Trump vs Obama issue and "owning the libs" without even focusing on the matter at hand.
This latest move regarding the environment makes no sense, but people are busy focusing on how Trump is attacking Obama. I love Obama, but we're about to have dangerous water quality.