“A cascade of courtroom standoffs are beginning to slow, and even reverse, the EPA rollbacks thanks to the administration’s ‘disregard for the law”. Oliver Milman writing for the Guardian.
In 2017, news of climate extremes was a shot across the worlds bow. There was the record-breaking heat across the planet, California’s biggest wildfire occurred during the winter, an ex-tropical cyclone slammed Ireland, and the unprecedented Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria barreled through the Atlantic.
The major TV news networks reported on these disasters. What they did not share, was the connection between these environmental disasters and climate change. Given that 2017 marked the first time that peer reviewed scientific papers concluded that theses events could not have happened in a world where warming didn’t exist, the lack of reporting was a disservice to the public. What the media did cover was the shenanigans of the buffoon occupying the oval office and his ignorant statements on the environment and climate change.
Finally, the Trump administrations virulent anti-environmental and his eco and social-justice crimes have met resistance. They have become stymied in the court process. Make no mistake, Trump is determined to destroy the environment and gift the fossil fuel industries and other major polluters with all kinds of deregulated goodness. The resistance must remain vigilant.
Oliver Milman of the Guardian writes:
“The Trump administration has been sloppy and careless, they’ve shown significant disrespect for rule of law and courts have called them on it,” said Richard Revesz, a professor at the New York University school of law.
“I expect we will see a number of further losses for the administration on similar grounds. If they keep showing the same disregard for the law, their attempt to repeal all these environmental regulations will go badly for them.”
Ironically for Pruitt, who has touted a “back to basics” approach rooted safely within the confines of the law, this rapidly executed agenda has run into a thicket of legal problems, causing the administration to admit defeat in several cases.
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“We know humans have most flourished during times of what, warming trends,” Pruitt said Tuesday during an interview on KSNV, an NBC affiliate in Las Vegas. “So I think there’s assumptions made that because the climate is warming, that that necessarily is a bad thing. Do we really know what the ideal surface temperature should be in the year 2100, in the year 2018? That’s fairly arrogant for us to think that we know exactly what it should be in 2100.” Pruitt continued: “There are very important questions around the climate issue that folks really don’t get to. And that’s one of the reasons why I’ve talked about having an honest, open, transparent debate about what do we know, what don’t we know, so the American people can be informed and they can make decisions on their own with respect to these issues.”Many of these legal problems have stemmed from the sheer pace of the rollbacks – required public comment periods have been set aside in some cases, any rationale for repeal or delay has been missing in others. Opponents of the administration also believe there is a determination to expunge every vestige of Obama’s environmental legacy, regardless of merit.
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The EPA now faces a fresh wave of opposition as it looks to craft replacements for major Obama rules such as the clean power plan, which sought to limit emissions from coal-fired power plants, and the waters of the US rule, which greatly expanded clean water protections.