Commentary: Trump has become the planet's diligent destroyer

Austin Statesman
By Bill McCann Contributing columnist
Posted at 5:01 AM 1/30/20

While President Donald Trump’s impeachment and the crisis with Iran distracted the public, the Trump administration demonstrated again that it is more concerned about coddling polluters than protecting our planet. On Jan. 9, Trump announced his administration’s proposal to gut rules governing the nation’s landmark environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The proposal is part of a long, growing list of Trump administration actions that threaten to undo a half century of environmental progress in the United States. Trump’s raids on the environment have included gutting rules limiting emissions of climate-changing carbon dioxide from power plants; rolling back rules on leaks of climate-changing methane from oil and gas operations; rolling back rules relating to safety of offshore drilling operations; and rolling back fuel efficiency standards for new autos. Also, last week the administration announced it was easing limits on pollutants dumped into the nation’s smaller streams and in wetlands, a dirty-water scheme to appease developers and agricultural interests.

The attack on NEPA may be the most disturbing. Fifty years ago, author-journalist George Laycock wrote a book, “The Diligent Destroyers,” about how public agencies and big corporations were laying waste to America. Meanwhile, amid growing public concern about the environment, Congress passed NEPA and President Richard Nixon signed it into law. It required the federal government to review the environmental impacts of any major federally funded or permitted project – everything from highways to oil pipelines to mining or drilling on federal lands.

...Now, the Trump administration wants to “modernize” NEPA. That’s Trumpspeak for undermining the law, speeding up pipeline and other projects, giving short shrift to their effects on our air and water, and ignoring their potential impacts on climate change. Not surprisingly, the administration’s proposed changes to NEPA are similar to those requested recently by a group of organizations representing a who’s who of the nation’s biggest industrial polluters.

https://www.statesman.com/opinion/20200130/commentary-trump-has-become-planets-diligent-destroyer