Fact.... the
Potentially Responsible Parties are corporations
Called PRPs in literature.
Trump is probably a PRP and this isn’t revealed.
My own uncle ,locally, owned an auto body shop and his “ spent oils” were delivered to Solvents Recovery Service to be processed too. Just like Pratt and Whitney did too !....down the road.
Both were in the lawsuits filed to pay for the long term remediation. And we won so they had to pay for the cleanup systems in town. Many small factories here were involved.
Now all these PRPs get to stop helping with remediation.
Our Superfund sites revert to polluting us.
Our general populations are oblivious to a case settled in 1996 with Blumenthal at the podium and media present for his announcement.
3
And Congress is doing exactly what to counter this idiotic and dangerous move?
7
Reply to @Citizen
Senator Blumenthal was our Atty. General.
Sen. Murphy was our town Councilor. He started his political career in Southington by moving into our town from his hometown of Glastonbury. He took the open seat on council and immediately began running against a local woman who was a strong local republican advocate for children with disabilities. He won her state seat and then ran for Congress. 1990’s
Both were called on to help us cleanup our local cancer causing polluters. It wasn’t easy.
Social equity and health standards are tied to industry. The corporations win so poor people get neighborhoods near incinerators and processing plants .
Remember the old adage” hey are you from the wrong side of the tracks”???it is born of racist and bigoted truth.
You are right to think Congress will do nothing. Our community has to scream from rooftops and have many meetings with state officials. And now our sites .... still here and polluted in remediation are being threatened by trumpism autocrats.
Real Estate agents deplore having to explain lovely family oriented Southington to potential buyers of homes when they research areas to buy in. So
Yes !!!Congress !!!!!!! I realize ,and have ,since many activist battles ,does nothing for America. We do not need a senate. Just house of reps . Less “do nothings “up there or down there or over there in Washington
District of Columbia .
How we rid the country of haters is another topic .
3
In our town .......
Superfund site in active remediation.
1998..... all homes demolished after in-house Methane alarms placed by EPA and Dept. Of Health showed dangerous levels emitted and inhaled by homeowners. And risk of homes exploding.
2019....... methane gas field where homes used to be and across street from other homes occupied. Numerous gas release venting pipes visible in the multiple acre fenced in area.
Look up Superfund sites in Southington Conn. 1985 to 2000.
Look up Southington Association for the Environment..... SAFE Inc. 1992
Look up Marie Tuccitto Cancer Cluster Maps ..... Southington Ct.
Look up movie on PBS...... 1979
“ The Killing Ground”
At the end during Credits all USA Superfund sites were listed at the time.
Southington was one of numerous Superfund poisoning of residents. We had two actively polluting sites poisoning our ground water and poisoning ambient air in homes w Methane. The other site had VOCs and PCPs just beneath topsoil and seeping even today during its remediation into the aquifer feeding the quinnipiac River.
I think our government wants to slowly kill off all of us unless we can afford two planes and five houses in five countries. And have wealth above 400000 dollars yearly.
trump EPA is anathema to life on earth. Check out the history of Superfund sites and PRPs( potentially responsible party’s )
Also known as corporations choking our environment. All forward movement at clean ups and monitoring under heinous trump is ending !
7
Trump and the Republican criminal cabal continue to serve energy interests over the health of the environment and all of us. By definition they violate their oaths of office.
12
If destroying the planet by recklessly rolling back sensible environmental protections isn't a (high) crime against humanity, then I don't know what is!
14
I think that part of Trump’s reasoning comes from his belief that the wealthiest Americans do not have to answer to the general public or to congressional and federal regulations. They can game the system and he appears to be giving them a helping hand.
As a teenager and an Explorer Scout, I once had the opportunity via the U.S. Air Force to fly over large arid sections of New Mexico to see how drought shaped the environment. Millions of years ago the land was a great inland sea. That changed as the climate changed.
I knew what heat meant when I delivered newspapers after school. I didn’t know the extent to which energy companies were exploring and developing means to obtain deep-seated oil and gas deposits using high pressure and a water slurry in a state where water is a precious commodity. The same obtains in Texas and Oklahoma. Extraction techniques seem to contribute to long-term environmental degradation because they impact the aquifer at different depths. Once the aquifer has been depleted it can take thousands of years to be replenished. Meanwhile, surface water sources may be used up in short order, leaving an area as dry as parts of New Mexico are today. Mr. Trump and his allies appear not to care as long as their buddies in the oil and gas industry can increase production. It’s all about maximizing wealth for the wealthy.
9
We have farms near us that use the manure from their cows to produce energy. In several cases they have become “energy independent “. With the methane removed the manure is then spread as fertilizer.
9
If the U.S. president is the ‘leader of the free world’, the free world should be granted a vote in the next presidential election.
9
Does FOX cover this news? Do they tell their listeners all that trump is doing to this country or do they just keep telling the base how great he is?
18
But thankfully there are intelligent people in California and elsewhere that will pay no heed to this nonsense from science-deniers.
5
If it's "too costly to perform leak inspections", you don't get to be in the business.
14
The corpocracy will consume the world with every thing and every one in it if we do not rise up together and vote for a democratic government that is for the people.
7
The world is a mess! We’re going backwards, this people are so ignorant that hurts! America media for the last 3 weeks criticized the burning of Amazon rain forest. Why don’t investigate Trump Administration destructive policies in our environment? They’re doing everything against the scientists, they’re pleasing oil corporations, coal companies ,military industrial complex .The EPA should close, they’re not doing anything to protect our environment, public lands , rivers against multinationals.The water problem is a shame for the most rich nation . How are we going to deal with this damage ,is mind boggling. We know that Trump doing bad policies behind the doors , but the rest of the population, 48% have no idea. They think he’s doing s great job. Most Scientists can not work and bring the real facts, the FDA allowed pharmaceutical advertising and sell medications without trial. Actually 1/3 of all medications go to the Market without being completely tested. What kind of society we choose ? We are very advanced in technology, but half of the population have no brains, they think greedy, they don’t believe in science, they continue to act like the globe is a magic paradise, and blame other nations for earthquakes, hurricanes.. you name it. We all need to have a conscience, and only can change if our public and private education change the curriculum and start to teach civics, ethics , responsibilities in all concepts. The Individualism practice is a problem.
4
When I read articles about climate change I search for bias, precision, and objectivity. The title of this piece, describes methane as a "potent" greenhouse gas. That portrayal is followed in the first sentence of the article with the statement that the administration is planning to cut back on the "regulation" of methane emissions (of the oil and gas variety) which are a "major contributor to climate change."
Deep in the article is the statement that methane makes up "10% of greenhouse gas emissions" with the oil and gas portion of that being "significant." Other sources are noted as being from cattle and agriculture. So, what I gather from the article is that some part of 10% (the methane part) of greenhouse gas emissions from around the world come from oil and gas industry infrastructure. We are not told what that percentage is worldwide or in the US. The author tells us it is "significant." Keep In mind that in the author's opinion any % of 100% could be significant. In yours and mine probably not. Moreover, and by any measure a part of 10% of 100% of something is certainly not a "major" contributing part of that 100%. Please, more precision, less bias, and more objectivity and facts so that we readers can reach our own conclusions.
2
We need to hold the temperature down by a degree or two in order to avoid some of the worst effects of global warming. The ten percent of greenhouse gases represented by methane is a BIG deal
8
@Theodore R The first sentence of the article coupled with the captioned photo portrays methane emissions from oil and gas industry infrastructure as a major contributor to climate change. Facts and logic do not appear to support this portrayal. In short, it would seem that methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure is NOT A BIG deal.
1
@Craig Mayer
I think that in your careful reading to "search for bias, precision and objectivity" you may have somehow missed these sentences from the paragraph immediately preceding the one you cited: "[Methane] lingers in the atmosphere for a shorter period of time but packs a bigger punch while it lasts. By some estimates, methane has 80 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years in the atmosphere." Thus, while methane may make up only 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, it damage it can do is far, far greater than that number would suggest.
9
The negative effect by Methane is 23x higher than CO2. The 9-12 year lifespan of methane will increase due to significantly increasing global methane emissions which will reduce the concentration of atmospheric hydroxyl radical necessary to catalyze it to CO2. The EPA needs to follow the science.
5
Not only are the long term effects of methane gas leaks deadly for the planet and generations to come, but just look at what happened in 2015 in Porter Ranch, California when a methane gas leak occurred unabated. The people who lived there at the time are still suffering from health issues, including
Cancer, neurological and respiratory ailments.
7
Until May of 2016, there were no regulations on methane. Most of the changes to the EPA were mandated by Obama in his last months as President. If these regulations were so important, why were they not put in place earlier?
@Ma - rulemaking takes time, and the 2016 rule is in keeping with the EPA's requirement that they control emission of greenhouse gases.
"First proposed in August 2015, the Methane Rule generated over 900,000 public comments before EPA finalized it last week."
That's from this post which also explains that the methane rules built on previous (2012) rules managing emission of volatile organic compounds.
https://www.energyenvironmentallawadviser.com/2016/05/coming-down-the-pipeline-new-methane-emissions-limits/
But responsible action doesn't fly with the owners of our current Executive Branch. So the estimated savings for the industry are a pittance and in return, they can pollute more.
The Environmental Pollution Agency has been sold to the high bidders - industries with little concern about the planet their leave behind.
8
Methane is 87 times more potent a heat trapping gas than carbon dioxide over the initial 20 year span it stays in the atmosphere. And it’s these next 20 to 30 years that are the most critical as we attempt to reverse over a century of increasing release of fossil fuel byproducts into the atmosphere. It’s hard to believe that even a person with a thimble-sized attention span would miss this fact, because surely someone in the administration has pointed it out. It’s time to wonder if Trump’s malignant narcissistic personality disorder also includes a driving need to cause as much damage and suffering as possible. Why would he do it? Perhaps just because he can.
92
@It’s News Here
I'm afraid his attention span is bad but his brain is mega-diabolical. It's his heart that is the size of tick. And the effects of him, on the entire planet, a bad case of lyme disease.
Trump knows exactly what he is doing and it comes from a very dark place. He wants to plunder whatever he can especially when he has this much power.
I hope to God, Donald Trump is put in jail where he belongs. He's an evil man who has done evil things and he does not deserve one more second in a position of power.
23
My understanding is that methane emissions have picked up sharply over the last few years, and that the culprit has been identified as fracking, in the United States in particular. Methane is even more potent than CO2 in warming the planet. We focus on this terrible president's awful tweets, but what he is doing to our government (dismantling it), our alliances (destroying them), our enemies (giving aid and comfort) and our planet--setting us on an irreversible path to self-destruction--in the plain sight of Americans--is unbelievable.
105
@Jayne you are right that he is dismantling our government and alliances and it’s because these institutions have grown so big and have too much reach and control on our daily lives. Now the environmentalists are using global warming as a justification for the government to further control our behavior. The government is the most ineffective agency for climate change and should be dismantled as much as possible and Trumpiism is doing it.
1
@Qcell - who exactly is wronged by forcing companies that create pollution to manage that pollution rather than leave the costs to be borne by the rest of us?
Saying the government is the least effective agency for fighting climate change is standard libertarian silliness - because if you were right, the fossil companies would be fighting against climate change as "free" and responsible individuals by running cleanly and incorporating the costs of climate damage into the costs they charge people for using their products.
By the way, the Clean Air Act and clean water legislation, enacted at the federal level back in the early 1970s, has saved countless lives and improved the health of Americans ever since - while also improving environmental quality. Rivers don't tend to catch fire any more, stuff like that.
13
Pray tell, Qcell, what is the most effective agency for staving off climate change? And what has it done so far? As far as I can tell, this mystery force, whatever it is, has done a heckuva job so far.
6
Starting to feel like it's him or us.
286
@AH Why only starting...we should be outraged out on the streets and protesting every turn! Wake up America...
21
@Betsy:
people around the globe should!
wake up and reclaim the public domain.
every turn. day and night.
and the media should HELP.
instead of blowing all kinds of trump_ets
for distraction.
5
From another NYTimes article about this: "Without constraints on harmful emissions, some in the industry feel they will be less effective in arguing that gas should replace coal in generating power. And that would strengthen the case for favoring sources like wind and solar energy rather than gas to control global warming."
Well, the natural gas and oil frackers have been unprofitable while making climate change worse, and the new rule changes will make it worse.
But planned gas peaker plants are starting to lose to renewables plus storage, as prices for those technologies continue to plunge. As for regular combined-cycle gas plants? They start looking like stranded assets in utility planning models now, too. Interesting video of same:
https://climatecrocks.com/2019/07/30/natural-gas-is-big-but-future-increasingly-bleak/
And climate change is making it harder to keep all those pipelines intact and safe as increased downpours and flooding take a toll:
https://www.post-gazette.com/business/bop/2019/08/05/Too-much-rain-is-messing-with-pipeline-operators-infrastructure-plans/stories/201908040010
Seriously? To save 20 million bucks?
2
I'm on oxygen myself so taking it away could be called murdering me slowly.
1
Insane laws from an insane president. #25th Amendment
5
Christians who believe in the antiChrist will go to any length to prove its existence, even make it president of the United States and turn into hell, all to prove a point. Onward Christian Soldiers.
6
Our government and the republicans are insane! Impeach this idiot president before its too late!
2
If Trump's friend Putin does not kill us with radiation the Trump administration will eventually kill us with methane.
2
Given the science such an act is practically criminal. Yet the US Senate does nothing, again! The standing of the USA is going down the drain and US citizens are asleep at the switch. I was hoping that the department officials would have found a way to stop this insanity. Who will have the moral courage to stand up?
4
What part of "protection" does the Environmental PROTECTION Agency no longer understand?
Will HUD now start bulldozing cities? Labor department lay off everyone en masse?
Unreal.
5
Trump is on a rampage to destroy our economy, our environment, and our society.
Why the intelligence and military communities have not stepped in to save us is the tragic mystery of our time. Obeying orders was not considered an excuse at the Nuremberg trails after WWII.
4
Companies: don’t just speak out against the rollback. Ignore it. And let Trump know that you will ignore it.
2
Just days ago Trump announced that he cared about the environment. In fact he said that among the Presidents he was the best when it came to protecting the environment. The media should have raked him over the coals for such a characterization of himself. But we are drowning in his lies so it's understandable that some won't be commented upon, I guess. If anyone should be tarred, feathered, and run out of town it should be he.
3
People do realize gas leaks are explosive hazards right? Even if the EPA does not require this due diligence, I would hope that people working in the energy industry from sheer need for self preservation would do it anyway no matter what the fools in DC say.
1
This Administration operates on whims and expensive, needless court battles on all subject matter. Those legal fees not only represent waste but are defending potential harm and havoc on the American people and the land we share. How much money has been spent in the courts and the Justice Department on lawsuits regarding Trump and his Administration and has he used their attorneys for his personal defence?
2
At a cost of 19 million. This is chicken feed. Exxon, favors regulation, could distribute 19million
to smaller operators, have them fix their equipment, reduce
methane?
1
"The E.P.A.’s economic analysis of the rule estimated that it would save the oil and natural gas industry $17 million to $19 million a year. For comparison, the annual revenue of the United States oil industry as a whole typically ranges between $100 billion and $150 billion."
Sure, absolutely, save a few million while allowing smaller gas companies to let one of their most important products waft away into the sky. Good idea.
3
David Koch, the patron saint, major Republican donor and chief financier of the climate change denial movement, died just a few days ago.
One wonders if he called Donald Trump and the EPA administrators with a death bed wish to reverse the limitations on methane emissions that were affecting the profits of his many corporations.
The EPA has also advocated allowing coal burning electrical generating plants to release more mercury, a known neurotoxin, into our atmosphere, again as a way to increase coal and industry profits over the health needs of the citizenry.
Can we anticipate that the long standing rules to prevent acid rain will be the next regulation to to struck down, all on the altar of "Profits, Profits, and More Profits"?
4
Does big industry support the regulations because it helps eliminate small competition? That makes more sense.
Obama's regulations weren't necessary, as the industry is pursuing the reduction of methane gas to protect its bottom line. It is marketing LNG worldwide as the "clean" alternative to coal. The government shouldn't interfere when the market is doing the job for it.
1
Poor Barron.
4
“methane has 80 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years in the atmosphere.“
This means that in the first 10 years it’s over 100 times more potent than CO2.
In a sensible market solution a bounty would be paid by emitters to anyone discovering leaks. Drones , cameras and sensors would patrol pipelines, pumps and well-heads for leaks. The virtues of clean burning natural gas could be made real.
With arctic areas warming, methane could overtake carbon dioxide as the leading threat to climate stability as it can’t be taken up by photosynthesis in plants.
4
This shows why a supposed "businessman" should never be President. Short-term gain is his mantra. And then destruction, but by then his Company has moved on. Disgusting man once again.
7
This has been going on since day one of Trump's (and Vladi's) reign. As soon as he took over the White House, he started rubber stamping executive orders that were written by industry lobbyists and waiting to be put into effect. The motto of this presidency reads:"The short-term interests of capital ueber Alles."
Woe be future generations.
5
Trump is a man with his head in the sand. The denier -in- chief. When we all fry will he be any coolet?
When oil runs out, and it will soon, where will we be without investing in alternative energy? Natural gas does not run out slowly, it just vanishes. What then? Buy your solar oven. Collect water from the roof. Plant cooling and oxygen- giving fruit trees around your home. Start a patio garden. Raise a few chickens. Insulate your house. Invest in a small wood stove. Put in a few solar panels. Get yourself more self- sufficient. Your blood pressure will go down and your spirits will lift.
1
Who does this? Who wants methane released into the air? I mistakenly thought that even executives of chemical companies wanted clean air.
Who ARE these monsters running our country.
What sort of person(read President) would seek this out. The wrongly named Environmental Protection Agency. More like the agency of Corporate Greed. Outraged.
5
What good is more money if the planet is uninhabitable?
4
"The new methane rule will replace Obama's"
Always the same reason given for this insanity.
Isn't this clear to everyone by now?
If Obama signed it...
Trump will destroy it in an effort to erase his legacy.
The hatred and envy is strong in this one.
5
This is insanity and anyone who can’t or won’t see that it’s insanity, is helping to destroy their own habitat and that of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren! Why would we ever go back to old and uniformed ways of thinking? Advances were so hard fought. If we destroy Earth, our home, for short term profits, what have we actually gained? The same man whose administration consisting of corporate insiders and lobbyist, expedite climate change, it begs the question why we need a Space Force? What will there be to defend exactly? I’m awake at 4:00 a.m. pondering these questions, because Trump and his merry band of dimwits frighten me out of a sound sleep!
4
As I do believe in civility, I have decided to censor myself.
The words and phrases that come to mind are not appropriate for public comment.
If there were a modicum of sanity at the so-called "top", perhaps it would be worth the effort to find something to say, but we passed that point some time ago.
2
There is absolutely no evidence to the contrary that methane is bad for the environment and climate change. None, zero. It is blatantly clear that this deplorable administration is only beholding to the fossil fuel industries and cares nothing for the rest of us. We now have changed rules that allow the pollution of rivers, the air and now this. Can you imagine what could happen if deplorable Donald wins another term? It is beyond imagination, as has already been proved. The Senate of Moscow Mitch will block any attempt to roll these hideous changes back. Vote them all out of office for the our future.
2
Government regulations have been completely ineffective in cutting greenhouse gas emissions but has been very effective in stymieing growth and progress. The environmentalists have used the government to take control of our lives. It’s time to get government out of our lives and Trump is doing a great job at it.
1
Until there is such disaster, the best bet solution for energy production on an indutrial scale-is nuclear.
As a STEM student in college, it is clear to me, and others that as the world steps closer to the precipice of deadly climate overheating, that our nuclear know how -(which runs over 50% of all US electric generation)-can easily be scaled up to provide all the needed power for the entire world.
Further-Western designed(as opposed to old USSR),nuclear fission is clean, safe and does not leak or pollute-no radioactive leakage has been detected anywhere in the US-. The three minor accidents & lots of fear mongering among sensitive Japanese, who refuse to abandon their terror of anything nuclear-and Australians, who cannot tell the difference between electricity generation and an A-bomb factory -along with big oil- is pretty much what stands in the way of a future "zero-carbon" power generating world. We can have all the jobs we need and all the power as well.
People need to remember that the biggest atomic generator in the solar system is our sun-to which we expose ourselves to constantly.
1
If the private sector has its way, it will do what is cost effective. And when it becomes clear to corporate leadership that emissions need to be reduced, that’s what will be done. If the government is the decision maker, it will do what is politically popular. The people will be in charge for better or worse. Which strategy is better is hard to say. This methane thing is of lesser importance than the overall approach. The liberal media is certain that government control is the way to go. But really, it’s hard to say. It would be nice if the media grappled with the hard questions. But that doesn’t sell newspapers.
This is easier than it seems.
Trump's goals:
Destroy Obama's legacy
Profit as much $ as possible, especially from oil and gas industry
Continue to work on ideas to "postpone the 2020 election" by any means necessary
Side with the NRA, who may even be of help in setting up the postponement or cancellation of the 2020 election
Learn how Putin became President. It is not pretty.
5
The same physics we are messing with makes the surface of Venus hot enough to melt lead and Mars cold enough to freeze out CO2.
And those are our sister planets.
What could go wrong?
11
EPA now = Environmental Pollution Agency. Yes, this is a moral crime.
17
Yet another table the U.S. must excuse itself from due to lack of credibility on the issue. We can no longer slap China's or India's hand for seeking to use cheap coal to fuel their development and economy. I can't imagine how any country in the world can ever take the vaunted U.S of A seriously when they know the next election can mean complete regression to the heady days of the 1920's. The rest of the world is collectively shaking their heads and laughing at us.
7
@David
I doubt the rest of the world is laughing they may be shaking their heads with disbelief.
More stuff being done to make the environment worse.
Well Mr Trump has always said he wanted to do this and here we go again.
2
@David:
Perhaps not laughing at us, by rather weeping at the ever more callous and ignorant destruction of our One-Unit-Only planet Earth.
There is a tipping point beyond which saving ourselves becomes impossible; our proximity to that juncture is approaching ever more rapidly.
REALITY CHECK:
THERE ARE NO RE-DOs for our planet. Unless everyone of us can find it in us to strive to save the planet -- and possibly ourselves -- we might as well dig our graves now.
1
The Air in America is already unfit for consumption. Gas and Coal powered plants spew tons of toxins throughout our country. Add to this the by-product from Fracking and our Air becomes A Lethal stew that kills hundreds of people every day. In the very near future we will have to purchase Oxygen much the same way that we now purchase clean drinking water.
6
@Susan:
There's an excruciating irony here, in that the planet is being destroyed by activity that exists solely to generate more and more of this (ultimately abstract) concept, "money" . . . spending of which may well be required to obtain what little oxygen may be available.
And mankind anoints itself the most intelligent life on Earth.
Hardly.
7
This isn’t a roll-back, it’s a full-on crash.
5
The petroleum industry would make the environmental cost of methane production an externality. An objective analysis can show that the environmental cost of the reduced requirement for methane mitigation exceeds the savings to the petroleum industry resulting from this measure by many orders of magnitude. Clear-eyed and cynical individuals behind this proposed policy know this and simply do not care. Our great-grandchildren will curse their names.
2
@Anthony
It may be sooner than great grandchildren. The temperature rise is already more than it should be. The Paris Accord is much behind and Mr Trump pulled the U.S. out of it because he doesn't believe the climate is changing. Well so much for our stable genius POTUS.
5
@Alecfinn I am not sure whether or not POTUS actually rejects the notion of anthropogenic global warming, although he gives lip service to denial. What is certain is that the educated among those advocating lifting restrictions KNOW that anthropogenic global warming is indisputably taking place, but they value their power/wealth in the status quo over the environmental quality for future generations.
We the people are just collateral damage.
Life is the price you pay to have more money.
No lose to the money makers.
Remember the 80's "greed is good"........well we have clearly not evolved from that childish approach.
5
I do not live in the United States. Having said that, yours is the most influential country on the earth. What you do affects us all. Please vote this man out of office. The thought of a second Trump term is frightening indeed.
12
What do yo think the his price was for this indiscretion? He does nothing if not for money. He'll need it for lawyers and the next ex-Mrs. Trump.
3
These head in the sand politicians do not care that their own children and grandchildren will be affected by environmental rollbacks - amazing. Who do they care about?
6
What good is money when the world is on fire? What good is money when you can't breathe? What good is money when you can't think? What good is money when the environment is uninhabitable? What good is money when your children die? Will money buy a new planet?
1
@alank:
You've answered your question yourself: themselves, period.
1
To our friends growing corn: It's all about oil. Don't allow yourself to be convinced otherwise.
5
There's just nothing he won't tar, sully or plunder or despoil, is there?
The mining, the logging, now the unchecked gases.
The immigrants. The refugees.
The women.
The girls.
Relationships with allies. Our standing in the world.
The election.
Our democracy.
Gosh, can we call it a day, a year, a term already with this guy?
9
One more reason to vote him out of office.
4
Trump preemptively want to build a wall for “national security”. He knows that lethal heat will come very soon for certain countries, much sooner than it will the US; and there will definitely be climate refugees within the next 30 years. It seems, he wants a certain population, (the very ones on his ban), to just die. This can be considered genocide by the President of the US.
4
RIP the former EPA. you are now the Environmental Destruction Agency!
5
More criminal behavior on the part of the Trump and his proxies. This time, if this is approved, the charge should be mass murder as his decision gasses us all. Is there no end to the damage to our country and the world Trump and his mob will do?
7
Another exploitation. Awful idea. This needs to be stopped.
6
Energy is the worst performing sector in the last 10 years. Fracking and the insatiable drilll, dill, drill attitude has destroyed shareholder value in a dying industry, to say nothing of the environmental costs. It's just lose, lose, lose. So in other words, fits completely with the history of trump.
5
Given his Big Mac consumption, he needs to change the regulations because he is likely by far the biggest methane producer.
8
I hope the children and grandchildren of all his supporters contract a painful, disfiguring disease, and their parental monsters live long enough to watch them suffer.
4
Trump - speeding up the demise of our species on the planet.
5
According to WHO, extreme poverty has been drastically reduced since 1990. Mali has had some success in this regard. And since 1990, its carbon emissions have tripled. This is typical. Countries making inroads against poverty pollute more and more. And when the choice is between reducing poverty or reducing emissions, poor countries are not going to build windmills.
The three top strategies for reducing carbon emissions are to stop using fossil fuels, stop using methane and keep the poor from improving their lot.
Am I the only one who sees this headline and is unable to physically bring myself to read the article. I feel shell-shocked and in many ways helpless at this point with US environmental policy. Millions of people who I pass bye on a daily basis, support these decisions and support the man orchestrating them. How do I co-exist with them. It’s hard to fathom. This will not end well for my son. I thankfully will be dead within 50 years, which is really the only comforting takeaway.
11
No. I too dislike reading stuff that provokes the entirely reasonable, decent desire to beat the mortal schnozollas out of these greedheads. The prob is, such rational desire isn’t helpful.
1
Everyday, a fresh new hell.
34
Clearly the "Environmental Protection Agency" now requires a name change more in keeping with its new mission of destruction.
14
Ugh! The EPA? More like EDA (Environmental Destruction Agency). What a shame it is what we’re doing to the only livable planet we live we know of. All because people put their tastebuds before everything else: environment, animals’ ability to feel pain, sustainability, etc. I hope more people start realizing that they can’t chew animal flesh when they’re suffocating because of the lack of clean air.
3
Oh for the days when the Presidency represented the best that one could aspire to. 45 aspires to be a rock star as evidenced by his comments regarding crowd size. He is more like the lead character played by Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd, a movie directed by Elia Kazan in response to the horrors of the McCarthy era.
9
The Climate Crisis is here and now.
Justice needs to be delivered severely on November 3, 2020.
Trump, McConnel and the entire GOP need to be tossed out.
There needs to be a new set of rules for all lobbyist's in D.C. but especially those funded by multi billionaires like Koch. In death I'm sure there are people who were handed the David Koch baton to continue his "climate change is a hoax" going well into future generations.
10
Not sure how many times we have to rehash this before it sticks. Yes, CH4 (methane) is a potent GHG. But the amount of IR energy available to cause warming is dwarfed compared to CO2 which is dwarfed compared to water vapor. Plus, methane is short-lived in the atmosphere. This is fearmongering, not science.
@Adam Perhaps some science: Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) are powerful climate forcers that have relatively short atmospheric lifetimes. These pollutants include the greenhouse gases (GHG) methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), and anthropogenic black carbon. Because SLCP impacts are especially strong over the short term, acting now to reduce their emissions can have an immediate beneficial impact on climate change and public health. Source: California Air Resources Board. Yeah, I know what the Trump supporters say about science from California.
14
The problem with methane is that even if it is short-lived— as you put it— the amount going into the atmosphere is tremendous because we have animal farm industries all over the world. Methane is going into the atmosphere all the time, so in my opinion the amount of time it stays there is not as relevant as the fact that we’re quite literately suffocating our planet. :)
3
Read “The Sixth Extinction.” Species survived when conditions were right. Species died when the world around them changed. To be the instruments of our own extinction—as the beings who we are, this may be inevitable.
3
What's crazy about this roll back is that preventing methane leaks is not only good environmental policy, it actually makes companies money in the short and long term. Leaks are just waste of the actual product, natural gas. Effectively a leak is costing company lost revenue per unit of time. and diminishing their long term economic sustainability. I am beginning to think that like "They Live" or "The Arrival" and other sci-fi tropes, Trump and his cronies are in fact extraterrestrial invaders in disguise attempting to modify Earth's environment for their own benefit at the expense of everyone on Earth.
6
We are all acting as if US actions on the environment actually means something. They don't.
We are past the point of no return. Not just because of the US, but because of all of us all over the planet. And who are the biggest and fastest offenders on global environmental degradation? China and India.
So, these crocodile tears and this howling at the wind in these comments is just cathartic, if even that, and nothing more. Other than bitterly laughable.
None of us here in the US and around the globe are doing enough to stop the ensuing environmental wreckage we're facing.
Our only hope is for a mass extinction event that kills 90% of humanity.
4
So your solution is do nothing?? And you may want to check the numbers on top energy vampires in the world. The US still is very high up on that list.
I am heartsick at yet another affront to our intelligence, our environment and our children's future. This administration can't leave soon enough.
9
Nothing to get excited about. A friendly judge will be found to invoke a nationwide injection to stop the implementation of the rule.
Trump's game plan, as ever, is to do the opposite of what a normal leader of the free world would do. In other words, to do the opposite of what Obama would do. Little did we know when Obama made his mild jokes at Trump's expense at that White House Correspondents in 2011 that it would lead to this. But if you listen to the clip, Obama only had to mention Trump's name, and everybody at the dinner laughed. And as I recall, Trump turned beet red. I believe getting revenge for that laugh is the main reason Trump ran for the presidency and the reason he is trashing every possible norm.
8
Climate change should be thought of a form of systemic violence, the deliberate theft and destruction of the means to life itself. The planet isn't dying, it is being killed, and those doing the killing have names and addresses.
6
It’s one planet we have; we destroy it to our own eventual detriment- rich or poor.
3
Ok, then let's have the States implement what needs to be done at their level.
2
There most assuredly will come a time when what now seems like apocalyptic, overwrought language -- that Trump and his minions are committing vicious criminal acts against our planet, its people, and the generations yet to come -- will be universally accepted as understated truth. I suspect the big question then will be, why were the people of the world so quiescent in the face of such destructive behavior?
4
As the Trump Administration rolls back another reg to gift the fossil fuel industry, hurricane Dorian is waiting over ever warmer late summer waters to wreak havoc yet again on the US coastline. And the cost to the taxpayer, the cost of lives lost, of colossal flood waters notwithstanding the hoax of these buffoons in the Whitehouse!
Haven’t we seen this every year lately around this time?
You don’t need a PHD to make some connections, it’s seems pretty obvious. Americans are so obsessed with money. It will be this country’s downfall!
1
If you want to know something about methane, here is a good resource.
Chapter 2 - C2. Greenhouse Gases: Methane (CH4)
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/mguidry/Unnamed_Site_2/Chapter%202/Chapter2C2.html
Seems like Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Trump are doing whatever is humanly possible to assure that nobody like them is ever again allowed to set foot in office. Hopefully, execution of the crime will be delayed long enough to see them off. How deeply ashamed of these men their family members must feel!
2
Trump has declared war on the people of this nation, and on the rest of the world. He is deliberately trying to destroy this nation. He has absolutely no fear of breaking the law because the spineless Republican Senators have shown they will not help to remove hin from office.
These people, president included, should all be charged with treason.
4
I can only ask why. Did his base vote for more methane? Did his anti-abortion evangelicals? Did suburban Republicans? Who is this decision for? Even the energy companies have accepted methane regulation
I know the answer, and you do, too.
Obama.
What a petulant, destructive baby we have running our country into the ground.
9
Environmental Predation Agency
3
The problem today is that politicians are so arrogant to exclude objective scientific studies. They have nothing to offer to our society or to future generation except their despicable selfishness. That's so sad.
3
I think Trump and his cohorts get enormous
satisfaction in defeating, and abolishing, any and
all progressive progress the United States has made over
the last decades. This goes far beyond environmental rules,
and includes reproductive rights, civil rights, the list goes
on and on.
It has everything to do with being mean, vindictive, miserable human beings.
5
I'm starting to be happy I'm getting old.
1
The people of Hong Kong are putting "free" Americans to shame with their example of standing up for their rights
5
Attention Kamala Harris
Kamala, sorry I can’t donate I am a Canadian citizen. I have a proposal. Can Trump, the real estate guy be considered as a landlord? Can the citizens of the USA be considered tenants in the housing development known by the Acronym USA? Can you prosecute him for unsafe living conditions? His destructive initiatives to neuter the EPA have put his “tenants” at risk. I tried researching and found this quote:
Every tenant has the right to live in a safe home, free from health hazards and dangerous criminal activity. A landlord can only control so much; but if you believe your landlord has failed in their duty to provide a safe place to live, you might want to explore your legal options.
How about it Kamala? Can you bring this up? I honestly wish Canadians had a vote because this man now in charge affects us mentally, physically and economically. good luck, you can straighten things out. Let me know what you think…
3
I think that the name you’re searching for is, “Bercerra.”
The evangelicals will be thrilled to know that Trump is bringing Armageddon on sooner that most of us expected.
5
Trumps scorched earth policies are going to scorch the earth. The whole planet.
3
President Trump and his Republican Party poison Americans, our children and grandchildren. No dispute.
2
Until Republicans disown Trump and all his Marvel comics evil mastermind of depravity, there is no reason to vote GOP ever again. They will cede all good ideas about having a planet and health to the Dems.
2
There was Dumb and Dumber and now there is Dumbest. Maybe Trump should take a trip to Venus to see what global warming can do to a planet. Scientists say that there is no chance of this planet becoming another Venus but ti could move too far in that direction for humans to thrive on anything like the scare we are accustomed to. Trump is mindlessly lashing out against regulations. The fight against climate change has not gone well and Trump is doing all he can to make sure it doesn't go well. For what purpose we can only guess at.
3
“... natural gas production in the United States has almost doubled while methane emissions across the industry have fallen 15 percent.”
How do they think this happened? By accident? No, by regulation! It is as if they want methane emissions to grow apace with production.
7
As a kid in the ‘50s my family would go to the High Sierras to camp. In recent years when I return to those National Parks and forests of my youth I find campgrounds filled to capacity with RVs. The place looks like a vast WalMart parking lot.
America’s population is growing. We do NOT need to turn over forests and parks to mining, drilling, cattle grazing, and other. Commercial interests.
If anything, America needs more open space, parks, and recreational spaces.
In all my years I have yet to see anyone tear down a housing development to put up a forest.
Look at Brazil. Burning.
17
Were it that the responsible corporations -as they are now 'people'- should be able to get the cancers they have caused and pass away.
As for their children, they must be all but invisible to them, barely glimpsed occasionally through a haze of wine and pharmaceuticals.
They are morally and ethically oblivious to the here and now, never mind their future.
13
I hate that when people say “their children will suffer” because I’m thinking a generation yet to come, but I just realized that means MY generation (Gen Z) and I want to cry!
A British society of chemical engineers pointed out two decades ago that even conventional handling of natural gas
(including distribution and the uncountable leaks in all the systems that burn it – yes, your range too) make it as bad as coal for the environment. The simple message has always been don't burn fossil fuels, period. But we can get all excited if the rainforest catches fire.
7
This is an example, pure and simple, where the Trump administration's only thinking about this is, if Obama passed a regulation, we are going to undo it. No matter whether it was a good thing to do. Deep thinkers, the Trumpers.
25
@Tom Plus you never know when they are joking. Leading the free world is easy like trade wars. It's a breeze. It is all a joking matter. Odd that... because Donald himself cannot take a joke.
2
As he attacks wildlife and environmental regulations, he forgets hunters and fishermen are inclined to protect habitat and environment. Possibly, unbeknownst to him, his base objects.
15
Please stop referring to it as benign-sounding "climate change" and start using the term "climate crisis" which has been proven to change attitudes, and move people to want to do something about the existential threat to our civilization and planet.
29
When I was a little kid, I thought the Captain Planet villains were ridiculous. Now I'm in my 30s, and somehow they're in office.
This is a weird timeline.
Where's the reset button?
25
@JB We can't reset, JB. But we CAN help educate our children so things don't get even worse. But will we? Or are we just so busy that we'll just have to "try to get around to it tomorrow"?
NO!!! what a terrible idea!! I tried to submit comment but the EPA site is terrible. I cold not figure out where the proposal was. I guess they really do not want to hear from us.
Please @nytimes give us a helpful link!
14
So the billionaires who stand to benefit from the rollbacks will live quiet peaceful lives in vast underground bunkers or orbiting platforms while the poor suckers on the surface choke and die. Is that the plan? Stop them before they kill us all!
14
@interossiter No, Rossiter, there is no plan. That's the problem.
The people of whom you speak will simply be gone with the rest of us, and our children will be the ones left to wrestle with the dangers.
Ok. More methane? This is an April fools joke right?
Too bad we don't have a president who can look into this realize
what a stupid idea this would make
10
Deliver us from evil.
13
Shouldn't this be the lead story?
9
GOP nihilism in full bloom!
11
What?!! Are they trying to kill us?
12
@Jean No, Jean, they're simply trying to make as much money as possible. Whether our children live or die is of no concern to them.
1
The initials of the EPA stand for "Environmental Protective Agency". What a joke this administration is. I can't wait to see all of them disappear.
8
@Mike
should be changed to ‘Energy Pollution Authority’.
Can someone explain to me why the Republican Party is hellbent on destroying this planet? It's not like we've got another one we can jet off to when this one becomes a lifeless barren hunk of rock.
16
@Judy There's gold in them thar hills !
Y’all know that methane can be trapped and used as a renewable energy source?
4
@CMC So many things can be done if you have enough money, but this one is not one of the most affordable.
3
Once this administration is replaced and all the records of who was driving these policy decisions will be open to investigation, I am looking forward to the indictment for Crimes Against Humanity of those responsible. Mr. Wheeler is one who comes to mind, but I'm sure there will be countless others. They know the science and, unlike trump, they can't claim insanity. It's as obvious as dumping mercury into the drinking water. There will be a paper trail and countless witnesses. Getting nervous Mr. Wheeler?
13
This is a disaster. Between the fires in the Amazon and methane from fracking, which Trump will increase, we are in some serous climate trouble.
Why doesn't Trump care about the future of anything? He can only live in the moment. That's fine for yoga but it's not a good quality in a leader.
11
I guess the only good thing about this is that 99% of what he is doing is being tied up in court and won't take effect any time soon. And once Trump is Dumped the next Dem president will simply reverse every single thing Trump has done, 99% of which is by executive order and rules. Change them all back, erase Trump from history, as he is doing to Obama.
Of course we will need to make a major effort to purge all the Trump sycophants from the government or they will continue to destroy it from within - as Grover Norquist stated as being his most fervent desire.
10
Can we rename the EPA as the EDA environmental disaster agency?
9
POSDJT has successfully rebranded the EPA. It is now the EDA,
the Environmental Destruction Agency. So much winning.
5
You have to wonder if Obama had rolled back regulations on Methane would President Trump then regulate it?
13
@Harold Rosenbaum
Yes. Yes, he would have. No doubt about it.
Have people considered the idea that Individual 1 is deliberately destroying the biosphere? It sure does make him important, and psychopaths are not known for caring about the effects of their actions on others.
19
Science fiction books and movies are going to have to really think outside the box to come up with apocalyptic scenarios worse than what is actually real-life America, 2019.
I re-read Orwell's 1984 and it doesn't much shock, any longer. Daily life in this country feels as if a rat is caged inches from your face.
8
Why does this sound worse than yesterday, they day before that day, and the time yet to arrive?
10
@Ephemerol
Because it is.
Everyone has to breathe. Where do these people think they can hide?
10
My god, what is it about Barack Obama that got so deeply under Donald J. Trump's skin that he developed this sick compulsion to spend his presidency undoing everything Obama did so much better (not to mention with so much more class and with infinitely more regard for the common good)? Surely, it couldn't be ... race?
19
I think it is intelligence. Trump has trouble to follow Obama's even simplest sentences and deep down in his insecure self that makes him hate. All he is achieving with his constant Obama obsession is the opposite though. Obama was a decent man and now he is turning into the second coming of the messiah by comparison.
@Suzanne Cluckey
Trump was humiliated by President Obama at the White House Correspondents dinner in 2011. You can watch it on YouTube.
Obama was so funny....Trump almost exploded.
This explains so much about our current policies under Trump.
Too much winning! Good job GOP!
4
And who are we to let him?
2
Well ... talking about putting America last ...
Who could have done any better?
5
everyone reading this article can help simply by leaving meat out of their diet. animal agriculture (the raising feeding and slaughter of billions of animals each year) is the greatest contributor to methane pollution and green house gases.
9
People that work for these companies are more aware and do care about the planet, do not worry they do more good for the environment than the government, safety and the environment come first.
1
This revised rule would be counter productive. Leaking methane is lost methane. It cannot be sold. Nor can it be used for fuel or as a raw material Only recently has the technology become available to easily, quickly and cheaply detect methane leaks. Logically, producers, pipelines and users all should want to minimize such leaks. Moreover, detection avoids nasty explosions and the liability that follows. Actually, failing to use available inexpensive methods that could prevent such explosions, can lead to very hefty court awards.
Only the most marginal of operators cannot afford taking such precautions. But then Trump attracts such characters like flies on a cowpat.
8
This agency is long overdue for a name change. Environmental Destruction Agency.
5
Good analysis. We must keep in context that the IPCC raised its estimates of the Global Warming Potential of methane in 2013 to 84 times more than CO2 in its first 20 years after emission, and 86 times if ripple (multiplier) effects are considered. The scientists noted that there was no inherent reason to use the 100 year emissions factors compared to the 20 year factors, and I'd advocate that since we are already seeing climate change impacts, the next 20 years are critical and calculations should use the 20 year GWP.
This rollback is a travesty of the EPA's solemn mission that is supported by a vast majority of Americans and has been for many decades. It and most of the other sad headlines are a stark reminder of the need to get the GOP out of power in the Senate and Presidency - there are too many in that political party who are either willfully blind to science when it has "inconvenient truths" or actually want to see things collapse so there will be a Second Coming.
That latter idea sounds silly, but look at the polls of evangelicals and you'll be shocked at the numbers that expect it (so we don't need to take earth management seriously) and/or want it. Fine - have your silly belief, but don't impose it on the rest of us by being in government!
4
Trump is actually doing what republicans said they would do on the campaign trail but never actually did because they were really terrible ideas.
As the old adage goes, beware of what you may get it.
3
Should the United Nations recommend sanctions or other action against the US for its conduct? After all, it is threatening not just the united states but the entire world. Time for the world to act against us
16
It was a pretty Great Planet, while it lasted.
8
Gosh, these are so hard to read, aren't they. I feel my chest physically tighten every time I read an article about Trump and climate change. Sheesh. And I agree with many commenters saying that someone else - aka not our government - needs to step up and take control.
Related to that exact subject; Quinta Jurecic (writing for David Leonhardt's column) wrote a piece this Tuesday which addresses the question: should sovereignty when it comes to issues of climate change? Should one nation or body have more of a say when it comes to enacting policies which negatively impact the entire planet? I think so. This is a potentially dangerous thought. But today I'm thinking we want those who can act to preserve our earth, our only home to be in charge. No matter what country they're from. I don't know how that happens...but it is interesting to entertain, in light of today's news. What do you think?
One last question: As renewable energy is becoming more affordable, accessible, and therefore more profitable - why wouldn't a gas company invest in promoting that? I'm not being snarky, this is a genuine question. Amazon used to just sell books, now it sells everything. Whether you agree with their practices as a company (I don't) I'm using it as an analogy of how to pivot/expand a business which provides one thing in one way to providing that same thing many many ways.
PS I love @Stephen's analogy that the US is the cigarette the world is smoking. Powerful language reveals the truth.
5
Trump and his enablers are proving to the world just how misanthropic they are. Why intentionally harm the only environment we have? For money? How will money save them if they can't breathe? Until now, only comic book villains did something like this. But now, in reality, we have a U.S. president and his political party threatening the survival of the human race.
Back in the early 1970s James Baldwin predicted that America soon won't have any friends. Trump & Co. are doing an excellent job of proving Baldwin right.
10
From the article..."smaller operators responsible for lower-producing wells that his group represents could not absorb the costs that Exxon or Shell could". SO, great, this is where government can assist?? Help where needed?? This, instead of SCRAPING THE WHOLE THING!!
3
Sue the regulatory agency to tie them up in litigation forever...
5
I wonder if this planet will be able to survive Trump.
7
Yet another action that falls under High Crimes and Misdemeanors : abuse of authority, intimidation, misuse of assets, failure to supervise, dereliction of duty, unbecoming conduct.
2
Consider that Trump and his fellow environmental rapists are "holding back" since he wants to be re-elected. If he gets a second term he and his cronies will simply eliminate the EPA (all he has to do is stop enforcing anything) and all other agencies. Our government will cease to function. That is the reality of a second term for Trump and the dream of all Republicans.
Republicans...are you paying attention AT ALL? It is YOUR constituents who will be hurt, and killed, by Trumps actions. Do you care AT ALL about people over money?
14
Can’t he just run a hose from his exhaust to inside his car and save us all from the same fate?
2
@Dan The Don has never driven.
He doesn't even have the license. His slightest needs have always been met by others.
Trumps tower !
This administration's guiding ideology: Do whatever will annoy liberals.
3
@chris This administration's guiding philosophy: Do whatever you like.
If it goes wrong...well, that's why God made fall guys.
1
Plans to phase out the oil and gas industry should have begun a decade ago. It's high time to retire these harmful industries. The weakening of EPA regulations won't extend the lifetime of these industries in today's climate. In fact I think these steps will hasten their demise.
3
@Krishna Myneni I don't think you actually want to "retire" these industries. Even in Huntsville, it's a long way to get to work on foot.
And you may not want to heat your house with the fumes of burning coal.
You may, however, hope for a safer way of accessing and enjoying these benefits.
Let's not throw out the baby with the methane.
3
@kenneth, yes, actually I do think these options should be phased out for most uses, including commuter transportation. Alternatives are available, such as electric cars, but need to be within reach of the ordinary consumer. While I realize that the switch on oil and gas can't be thrown instantaneously, there needs to be a path to zero on a timeline consistent with climate science. Unfortunately that timeline involves going backwards in time.
2
And the electricity for your electric car is coming from where?
People in the rest of the world are perhaps staying quiet because they are afraid. An average citizen who may want to visit the USA for business or pleasure now thinks twice about posting anything in fear of being refused entry as Border Agents scan social media and emails of private individuals. Today, it was announced that social media histories will be part of VISA applications for the USA. Governments have also learned that there is very little to be gained by speaking-up. We look to you good people to make a difference from within.
9
Earlier this month, a dear friend, 72 yr old art quilt teacher from S Africa, who has been coming to teach classes in the US for 30 yrs was denied entry for having the wrong visa type - business/pleasure - that the consulate for 30 yrs has been issuing. She was frog marched out of the Seattle airport & returned to SA. Last month, my sister’s friend from New Zealand was denied entry for no apparent reason. He was coming to participate in a white water kayaking event. His family is very wealthy, in effect, built the city of Christchurch. They are both white w/no criminal record. ICE/Border Patrol is drunk on their power and needs their wings clipped.
2
The EPA tried this back i n2017 under Scott Pruitt, and the attempt was blocked by the courts because Pruitt and company couldn't come up with a valid reason for rolling back the regulations.
My guess is, their arguments will be as paper-thin now as they were two years ago, and there will be plenty of plaintiffs arguing against the rollback, armed with good reasons and hopefully solid science.
3
Perhaps We, the concerned citizens of the US, should express ourselves through a complete and total boycott of Any Republican running in 2020.
Also, if you have invested in mutual funds or indexes related to energy, disinvest ASAP. The resulting mass disinterest in these stocks will eliminate any stock gains hopes by the energy company executives.
And, if you can, start curtailing your car use and your flights and move towards mass transit for fun like trains. Also, reduce your reliance on plastics including disposable bags and bottles.
Together, We Can Make a Difference!
8
@Michael Kenny
Yes. “together, we can make a difference.”
That time is approaching - November 2020.
After twenty years of Republican control of either the White House or one or both branches of Congress, our country has reached the point of rack and ruin.
Your boycott proposal is a sound one. Of the two main parties, having voted for whom I thought the best of either, I now take the stand that I am an anti-republican.
2
How can easing EPA regs that lift restrictions on polluting our environment make sense politically? Trump we already know is shameless and totally corrupt. His only goal is to wield unabashed power for his own political ends or ego. He and many in the Party he has shaped could care less about the majority who support policies that create good government...Not just government for a few who stand to gain politically or financially. If that is indeed the Republican Party goal (and it’s leaders) it’s contrary to all we believe and hold dear.
Those who enable and support specious political goals that only help the few and the Fat Cats, including the EPA administrator, should be blacklisted once this administration is out of office. In the meantime those in Congress who care should repurpose the EPA as an instrumentality of the government (like the Fed), unbound to rampant partisanship, who can create a body that will make policy decisions apart from politics.
6
@Bob Williamson "...to wield unabashed power for his own political ends or ego."
And money ! Even more money. That's how you prove you're a worthwhile person.
The "Faith-Based" party is destroying the Environment and ignoring our duty to be stewards of the planet that we inhabit. There is absolutely no thought or concern for future generations.The selfishness and short-sightedness of this nightmare Administration is beyond reprehension.
10
Democratic candidates should send a public message to the industry: standards will be reimposed by the next Democratic administration.
Companies who continued, through the Trump admin, to respect Obama-era standards will be left alone. Those who did not -- the guilty ones behind this despicable move -- will be given new, much stricter standards, and if they fail to rapidly implement them, will be shut down.
3
@OD "...a public message to the industry: standards will be reimposed."
Why? Do you think they're not already spending enough money to block such an Administration.
We as a country seem unable to fix what's happening. Maybe it's time a foreign country invaded us to get us back on track. Throw out Trump and takeover the government in the interest of the people of the world. After all the times we've invaded somewhere else, we would most certainly deserve it.
4
@Todd
Basically Russia has invaded us and helped install Trump as president and has helped Moscow Mitch be re-elected by Russian oligarchs helping fund new business in depressed areas of Kentucky. The upshot of this is neither Trump nor McConnell will not criticize Russian or do anything to protect our election from Russian interference or other ways Russia is sowing discord in this country.
1
@Todd Or maybe it's time we woke up and did the job ourselves. There is an election coming up, after all. Who among us is going to get out there and actually WORK the neighborhoods?
@fast/furious 100%
This is a terrible decision yet again by Trump. At a cataclismic moment in the history of mankind where we face possibly irreversible climate change and are at a tipping point of a rapidly warming climate in which we cannot come back from, Trump is making decisions like these that will leave us ruined. We need to be reducing, replacing and eliminating green house gases like these, CO2 and fluoridated gases across our industries and homes to give us a fighting chance to stave off destroying our atmosphere. This is our only hope.
And again for the record, for all of the hare brained lunatics who still don't believe climate change is real and 100% caused by humans. Here are 2 graphs that prove it. In the past 100 years, our atmospheric CO2 has increased by 33%. Before that it had never increased in the past 10,000 years and had been flat.
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere#/media/File:CO2_40k.png
4
@Charlie "This is a terrible decision yet again by Trump." Puppets do not make decisions.
1
It’s heartening to see it’s not just immigrants he dislikes.
This is what it's like to have a cartoon super villain as a President.
6
Even Exxon, Shell and BP are opposed. The Trump admin are simply accelerating global heating for fun now. They actually think it's funny to kill our children's future.
3
What? The administration is doing this in lieu of burning forests? Or is that next?
5
No one in these comments has mentioned FOX NEWS.
FOX NEWS is a 24/7 outlet that functions as a mouthpiece for Donald Trump & against the rule of law in the United States.
Dozens of FOX NEWS "anchors" & "analysts" spend their time demonizing the Democrats, the "Squad," the Green New Deal, environmental regulations & promotes lies about how dismantling environmental regulations don't harm anything.
Rupert Murdoch, a native Australian media titan, moved to to the U.S. & became a citizen to start FOX NEWS - which broadcasts lies 24 hours a day & was instrumental in Trump's election.
The people who voted for Trump don't read the NYT or the Washington Post. These people get all their 'news' from FOX NEWS & believe the poisonous swill FOX NEWS pumps out all day long. There are as many lies & counter-facts coming out of FOX NEWS every day as are coming out of Trump's mouth.
FOX NEWS is an alternate right wing reality in this country with tens of millions of regular viewers.
Nobody's talking about the role Rupert Murdoch & FOX NEWS plays spreading the lie the climate change is a hoax.
Turn on FOX NEWS & you'll see FOX talking heads claim AOC wants to take away your hamburgers & that methane gas comes from cows.
Tens of millions of voters believe this stuff - & they're going to vote for Trump again.
The Murdoch family is making billion$ a yr running this scam 'news' outlet.
Nobody does more to promote Trump and deny climate change than FOX NEWS & Rupert Murdoch.
10
It seems Trump's personal animosity toward his predecessor takes precedence even over what Republican constituents (i.e., corporations and the wealthy) want. Or maybe he's trying to excite his base by eliminating everything Obama did, to affirm their bigoted belief that Obama was an illegitimate president. Either way, it's just one more way the Narcissist-in-Chief is destroying everything.
4
One bit of solace is that Mar a Lago will be under water and tRump’s grandchildren will live with or die from the consequences of his selfish, shortsighted decrees.
1
How does it feel to have a madman for President who's only concern is profit?
6
Actually, I bet Donny's minions will try but fail when challenged in court. The only skill this bunch is on top of is incompetence.
1
This obviously isn't about reducing regulations that hamper business or anything else.
It's about one thing and one thing only. A black man implemented the previous rule. An elected, educated, smart, responsible, popular black man.
That's it. Period.
11
Please explain to me how this is making America great again?
7
How much damage can one evil person do? An incalculable amount.
2
Seriously and honestly. Are the O&G companies hurting for money? Are the corporate hand outs from the tax payer not enough. What is the problem this "deregulation" solves exactly?
1
Do republicans care so little for our planet that they say nothing? Or are they so greedy and love power ao much that everyone's welfare, including their children and grandchildren, mean nothing. Actually we know the answer.
1
Every day there is fresh news of some new, awful thing they have done. And still sixteen months to go.
And trump could win. Many ways in which this could occur; but mainly because here in the states we do not have one person, one vote.
1
anyone looking to know ALL of the environmental, animal & air regulations that The Donny & Co have rolled back or are in process of trying to roll back, here are all 84 of them: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
9
hahaha even the industries that would benefit are against this lol.
what does tha tell u all. he wants to burn this place to the ground before he's out of office. it's easy to predict what trump will do next. just find what hasn't been reversed yet that Obama laid out.
8
I can only conclude trump has no love for his own children or grandchildren.
He is seriously disturbed.
17
That he has “a thing” for Ivanka is well documented. He denied paying for health coverage from the family policy for his nephew’s baby born with cystic fibrosis.
5
So he clearly does not think he will be re-elected, or does not want to be.
But????? Why cause all this damage and suffering - because he can? Because Obama? I'm at a loss.
As for the treasonous GOP? Really, because Obama too?
7
I'm not astonished what president Trump wants to change or not. I'm disappointed about the people who aproves this.
3
Where is the voice of the people in Washington?? We need damage control now. We need the representatives and senators who have become addicted to a diet of san (because that's where their heads are) to wake up, stop shaking in their boots at the sound of the name Trump, and stop this megolomaniac. We're at the point where it's more than jsut about jobs - this is a crime against humanity.
Elected officials of the US - don't go down in history as the most cowardly branch of government.
Don't be forgotten like the minor officials in all the failed states of history. Stop grovelling.
Don't be the ones who turned their backs on the rape of the planet. You have the power to heal these wounds.
4
This is part of the current administration's campaign to damage the country and the planet. As plain as the nose on your face.
3
DO you ever wonder what the GOP and Trump have against the planet and the health of the USA citizens?
Make America Sick Again?
7
It’s all about greed. They don’t seem to be aware that they can’t buy clean air, clean water, earth that’s not poisoned.
1
How Americans aren’t in the streets like Hong Kongers fighting against this blatant destruction is beyond me. You deserve the waves that come crashing through your front doors much sooner than expected.
12
@BDubs
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Where are the protests?
What does he have to do more before people will take to the streets and let the world know that this is NOT what America should be all about ... ?
What's the value of a democracy without any protests?
4
I used to think that Republicans just hated humanity, but trump has shown me that Republicans are bigger than that; they hate all life on the planet.
13
Any person who thinks climate change is a Chinese Hoax is an ignoramus. Unfortunately, he has almost unlimited power as President of the United States.
3
Cows, pigs, horses, and human beings.
Now there's some methane!
Oil companies have invested for decades in trying to come up with studies that would show that climate change wouldn't be real.
They failed badly.
As a result, even former Exxon Mobile CEO and Trump's first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, publicly acknowledged that it's real, and that we have to adapt, and adapt fast.
And just like the current EM CEO, he strongly urged Trump to stay in the Paris agreement.
Then he noticed, after working with him day and night, that Trump was actually a "moron".
So he got fired.
Trump isn't good at "hiring the best", he's good at FIRING the best.
3
This is an incredibly stupid move. If Trump and all these old Republicans are trying to get bigger payoffs from the oil and gas industry, they might want to consider this: I've never seen a hearse with a U-Haul behind it, and they're leaving their children & grandkids with an uninhabitable planet. If they don't care about their own families then there's no chance of dealing with them rationally at this point. The states will have to initiate a clean energy plan without any help from the Federal Government.
2
Like his now dead long time good buddy, Jeffrey Epstein, Trump seems capable of nothing but perversion. Like his penchant for unsolicited crotch-grabbing, he believes that the people affected by his perversions are irrelevant; they don’t matter. This, of course, includes his supporters - rabid and otherwise. He’ll be long gone by the time our breathable air runs out. It’s not his problem.
5
POTUS is mad, simply mad, bent on destroying our planet in order to sell out to the highest bidder. I hope this effort gets shot down.
2
The only way Trump wanted to buy Greenland is if he could personally pocket enough oil/gas lease kickbacks from Exxon/BP and the rest of the filthy planet destroying crooks to make it worth his while. He'd melt the entire glacial ice sheets and put a bullet in the brain of the world's last whale if there were a buck in it.
5
America, you’ve become a complete joke of a country!
10
What is with the headline? "Roll back"? How about "destroy"? "Roll back regulations" sounds so benign, even positive. Do better, NY Times. Words matter.
5
These companies all know this will not stand. No point in investing in exploitation that has no future. Stumpy is too dumb to know that and just wants to get a pat on the back from someone, somewhere, somehow!
Losers work that way.
Trump: Lets do everything that we should not be doing. Here’s my agenda:
1. Nuke the hurricanes
2. Flood the planet with methane.
3. Accelerate global warming by 20 times
4. Make the earth uninhabitable by 2030.
5. That Greta girl needs to be taught a lesson
1
Gee. If I didn't know better I'd think the Trump administration goal is to end all life on earth.
oh wait.
https://www.newsweek.com/earth-desert-2050-global-warming-768545
5
TRUMP Has declared war on the planet Earth! His policies are literally the ultimate Scorched Earth Policy. Hitler used the scorched Earth policy when the Nazis realized that they were losing WW II. Now Trump has single-handedly, unilaterally, embarked upon a path by which he would leave the Earth in the position of being destroyed after he and his most corrupt administration in the history of the US, have left office. Trump's savagery, instability and extremely mentally ill state all combine to form the perfect storm. Words fail to describe his destructive evil. Mike Bloomberg warned us that Trump was a New York con, but he fell short of detailing Trump's destructive potential. The continued existence of the human speces--of all life on Earth--depend on removing Trump from office. What further proof is necessary that he is severely medically impaired, and cannot fulfill his official duties? Trump suffers from a brain disease, the characteristics of which include distorted thinking and loss of contact with reality. Trump represents a clear and present existential threat to the planet Earth and living things. He truly is the black hole that will destroy everything in the universe!
2
I'm proud to live in a state condemning 'fracking', and calling New York State my home.
And no, for all the 'trolls' looking to pigeon-hole me by claiming I may hate 'fracking' but love the results of 'hydraulic fracturing' every time I fill up my car's gas tank, I don't, I'm not happy with having to purchase 'frack-gas' at the pump.
3
Charles Koch must be happy.
2
Across the Canadian and Russian Arctic, t he permafrost melt is accelerating with immense methane release. We are well and truly cooked with a lunatic in the White House. Impeach now.
7
The constant drum beat of climate change is making my eyes glaze over. Can the Times stop with all the doomsday predictions? It's a turn off to most Americans and doesn't seem to be a priority to voters in 2020. Heck, even Democrat primary voters had no time for Jay Inslee and he was the climate change candidate.
It is really a joke that people get sucked into this drama.
1
It is really a joke that people can so close their eyes to reality. Look outside your bubble. Just do it.
2
@Melissa M.
You think this is a JOKE? I have news for you. It isn't a joke and we Democrats take it very seriously. All of our candidates do too.
I wish, really wish you'd have the courage to look at the situation and accept the fact that it's bad.
2
Imagine hating someone so much you damage your own country and the planet to strike out at this person.
Now, imagine the hater is the so-called president.
No, wait...no imagination necessary.
And the person so hated....a man above it all.
5
So many are asking: "Don't these people have children or grandchildren?"
Of course they do. That's missing the point. The wealthy and powerful understand that the more money they hoard for themselves, the more effectively their wealthy heirs will be able to insulate themselves from the coming environmental catastrophe.
All indications are that many humans will inevitably perish—but probably not all of them. Who will survive? Almost certainly it will be those with the most power and resources.
And so, the logic goes: Let's make as much money as we can now, so our children and grandchildren can be among that elite group of survivors. And let the "weak" perish, as they surely will.
Unless...
5
I hate to sound like a stuck record but why aren't investigations underway into possible ties between Trump and Big Oil? EVERYTHING he does clearly has the intention of giving this massively wealthy industry a free pass to destroy the planet in the interests of profits. Surely there is dark money involved somewhere. What other possible motives could a person like Trump have to destroy these very necessary checks and balances against industrial power. His whole life has been about the accumulation of wealth at all costs, he clearly will do anything to maintain an extravagant lifestyle. There is something extremely rotten in the air and its not just the smell of methane!
410
@Mark Crozier
Follow the article. Big oil wants more regulations because it puts their smaller competitors out of business.
Methane is colorless and odorless.
16
@ebmem
Yes, methane (CH4) is colorless and odorless in laboratory pure form—
But odorant is added for safety, giving "natural gas" its characteristic smell as alluded to by Mr. Crozier.
27
@Mark Crozier
"What other possible motives could a person like Trump have to destroy these very necessary checks and balances against industrial power."
The "very stable genius" is indulging his anger and petty vengeance against President Obama and against a society that he feels did him wrong! I think he's a deranged madman and there's a ton of evidence to support that.
83
Important detail is that the energy companies opposed this move. This is eerily similar to the response of the auto industry when Trump lowered fuel efficiency standards.
These are huge corporations which employ thousands of people and need to plan their policies based on a realistic view of the future.
I am not a fan of either industries, and would like to see them become 'green' more quickly, but they have responded when presented with a plan. I also understand that congress people have been responsible for the slow pace of environmental modernization.
Losing jobs is a real fear; creating new jobs thru investment a murky prospect. This is why we need intelligent, visionary leadership and investment into a better future.
The sickening excuse for a human being in the wh has zero of the above qualities. Soon he will be gone, facing the fed, state, local charges awaiting him.
The rest of us need to start creating a future now.
5
It is not about the big companies. It is the frackers on the ground in North Dakota and in other fracking states that want this from Trump and the EPA.
They are the polluters. There are state laws against the flaring, but venting is another story--that's the EPA. Just release the gases directly into the air, don't burn it off.
2
Take heed to this. There is also an article in today's NYT about all the environmental rollbacks planned by this administration. It is going to take years to undo all the damage the Republican Senators are allowing.
10
Last time I checked, the US was not importing natural gas. Therefore, rolling back regulations on natural gas production are not part of the mandate about imported energy!
I'm sick of waking up each day to find what new Trump has found to hurt something or someone. What is it with this man and the people who support him? Our environment is crying out to be saved. It seems pretty obvious if we don't start seriously trying to combat climate change the results will be catastrophic, but Trump administrations priority is saving the oil and natural gas industry millions of dollars? Where are our checks and balances? Has anyone seen them lately?
6
It only makes sense when you consider that mendacity and cruelty is the motive, not the bug to any policy initiated and passed by the Trump Administration.
1
The environmental policy of the Trump administration is not an outlier in a GOP administration. As far back as GOP's St. Reagan did exactly the same thing decades ago.
In fact many of our problems such as income equity, environment, education, health care, guns, taxes, infrastructure, etc. could have been solved, the GOP not only put up a firewall but festered these problems. The facts are that the GOP cabal is a cancer on America with ever growing tumor, if we don't get rid of this mortal plutocratic disease, it will eventually kill our democracy.
6
Trump thinks windmills cause cancer. Researchers at MIT recently concluded exactly the opposite. In fact, in ten midwestern states, they found a total $3.5 billion investment in windmills and solar panels would result in a total $4.7 billion savings just in healthcare costs (specifically, less lung damage from exhaust). "This research shows that renewables pay for themselves through health benefits alone," said lead author and MIT professor Emil Dimanchev. So, I think you can see the problem here: when is Trump going to do something about all the 'fake research results' being produced at places like MIT?
7
This is like Ground Hog day for me (and perhaps for many other Americans). Every day I watch as much of the news that i can physically & emotionally tolerate and then repeat the same mantra out loud: "When are these irresponsible Congressmen- women and Senators going to wake up - speak up and actually do something here"?
How and why can all of these folks be afraid to stand up to ONE MAN? Sorry i cannot comprehend this. We are playing with fire in terms of the environment- the economy and our democracy. How long will our elected representatives remain silent and stay in their respective tribal corners?
8
He’s trying to roll back car mileage standards over the objections of the automakers. And now roll back methane emissions protections over the objections of oil companies.
I assume the key word here is “Obama,” since he was responsible for both of these rules. It’s just astounding the damage our petty little insecure President seeks to inflict.
6
I was worried about my grandchildren and global warming. With Trump in charge I'm now worried about myself and global warming. And I'm old.
7
"Other sources [of methane] include cattle and agriculture." Don't forget the aftermath of Oval Office cheeseburger consumption. That's probably the real reason Trump wants to relax methane emission regulations.
Any sane Congress would immediately defund the EPA, until a real President got the organization back to its intended charter.
1
President Trump has called himself an environmentalist! All of his actions have been the exact opposite. The earth is in need of our help, and we have an anti-environmentalist as our president. All citizens need to take a stand against the latest environmental danger! Climate change is here; we need to act!
1
45 does not care about anyone or anything except reversing each and every one of President Obama's advancements. Period. All one has to do to have an idea of what's next on the chopping block is look at President Obama's legacy of accomplishments on behalf of the greater good.
3
From what US prisons are Trump and Wheeler nominating and hiring their EPA administrators?
2
The warmer ocean waters are related to methane. I wonder if Hurricane Dorian will hit a bullseye on Mar-A-Lago?
4
This from the stable genius of the greatest environmentalist in the entire galaxy.
3
As an aside, I hope we all live long enough to see videos of a climate-induced high tide flooding the lower lip of the putting green at the Mar-a-Lago National Historical Site.
Come to think of it, a back-up of heavy rain runoff on the putting green drainage system causing a “soggy” resistance to one’s putt would work just as well. And maybe sooner.
Perhaps at the time the “media” might be able to get a quote from the site manager to the effect that “things are a bit slow on the back green today, Sir. You may have to chip instead of putt, Sir."
4
The more humans, the more climate change. Should we regulate birth rates?
@Don Q What an interesting idea. Maybe it deserves some thought.
2
The better the living standards and health systems are the lower the fecondity rate sinks.
= do that.
@Don Q I live in a state that should regulate birth rates.
1
Hmm. The article is intentionally misleading, which is obvious to anyone with critical thinking skills.
Obama put in place a regulation that Big Oil wants to keep in place. [That fact alone makes one suspicious that Big Oil paid the Obama administration to impose the regulation.]
The regulation costs small owners/operators of old natural gas wells and gathering systems $17 to $19 million per year to implement. The regulatory cost is imposed on the small business sector of the oil industry that is not currently even breaking even. Add millions in operating cost to a segment that is currently operating at a loss, and they go bankrupt. Either the leaking system is abandoned to continue leaking, or Big Oil gets to buy it up for pennies on the dollar.
It is mentioned in the article that 10% of American greenhouse gas emissions are natural gas. Why is it that there is no mention of how much this Obama regulation reduces at a cost of $17 to $19 million dollars per year, a cost that will be incorporated into the price paid by consumers?
Wouldn't a rational assessor of policy decision what to know how much greenhouse gases are being avoided at a cost of $17-$19 million? Why is that fact omitted in the editorial?
Before the EPA even thought of regulating methane emissions, the amount of methane production doubled nationally and methane emissions declined by 15% instead of increasing by 100%.
Maybe, just maybe, the companies will say, “Thanks, but the things we do to meet the ‘old’ requirements are company policy now, so we’ll keep doing them.” (See comment by Joe Miksis)
1
I can't wait to walk the dry dessert that was once the United States with Trump's grandchildren- all of us wearing our tattered rags.
A terrorist can be defined as someone who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, for political gain. Isn't this basically what we have become in our attitude and policies with the environment amd how it affects the rest of the world? We are singlehandedly causing the extinction of entire civilizations that are coastal in nature as well as creating a chain of events that will lead to an incredible amount of destruction and humanitarian desperation in the years to come. This will apply not only to ourselves but to the rest of the world. And it's all being done by a small group of wealthy, powerful individuals who have bought and paid off the political figures that control our laws. I predict in the near future if this does not stop America will become one of the targets of multiple trials for crimes against humanity.
Re: "...The Trump E.P.A. is eager to give the oil and gas industry a free pass to keep leaking enormous amounts of climate pollution into the air,” said David Doniger, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “If E.P.A. moves forward with this reckless and sinister proposal, we will see them in court.”
Both of my parents suffered, from C.O.P.D., acquired via decades of nicotine addiction.
Methane / other greenhouse gases will do, humanity like nicotine does smokers...
Is this hominid_extinction promotion / crime considered some sort of 'favor' from / by the Polluter, In Chief??
@R.G. Frano could you explain (or rephrase) the question?
I would love to be positive regarding the environment but it is obvious that the human race is determined to go right over the cliff- probably in an oversized SUV on the way home to a 5,000 square foot McMansion built for 2 with a “blessed” bumper sticker and an ichthus.
4
Of all the stories that come to mind
This recent one is plainly designed
To highlight how Trump acts
Don’t confuse me with facts
Since I’ve already made up my mind
@Larry Greenfield I haven't made up my mind yet, Larry. Care to explain what you're talking about? It's cute, but very puzzling.
2
What I’d like to know is who will protect the dirty energy executives and the politicians who supported them after the first killer heatwave wipes out tens of thousands in the US? We know it’s going to happen. There will be millions of people fully aware of the damage and causes who will want justice and/or vengeance. Do the wealthy and the executives who profited from their lies and deception think they’re impervious the the blind rage of a mob?
1
@Loren Johnson Yes.
1
Was the public demanding more methane in the atmosphere? What kind of human has the time to think this stuff up? At what point do republicans start worrying about humanity?
4
They don't have to worry. God is in charge of that part and he is always on their side.
I though electing Trump was a nihilistic act on the part of the electorate. I had no idea how nihilistic this administration would turn out to be. Clearly nothing that happens after Trump's passing matters to him whatsoever.
This has moved way beyond ignorance and is now genuinely malicious acts against the human race and every other living thing we share the planet with.
3
Methane and other light hydrocarbons are a constant problem in the oil industry. For years, oil production burned them by flare: called flaring. Astronauts reported that you could identify oil fields in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and elsewhere from space. Later production companies discovered how valuable methane is for re-charging pressure in oil reserves to improve quality.
Methane is also critical for oil refinery: it is converted to hydrogen and carbon dioxide and the hydrogen is used to clean nitrogen (product: ammonia); oxygen (product: water); and sulfur (product: hydrogen sulfide).
The point is that oil companies don't want to waste methane. Unfortunately, Trump's changes play into the hand of refiners who have little use for the heavier cousins of methane: propane, propylene, etc.. Re-compression has been discussed and promoted but without a cost incentive leaks of these hydrocarbons will be increased unabated.
1
The decision to cut back regulation of methane emissions is an abomination but not a surprise. My state, New Mexico, has one of the highest methane emission rates in the U.S and we lose millions in royalties each year that could benefit our school children because the energy companies don't want bear the burden of capturing methane produced from the public's state and federal lands. Another reason to vote against Trump and for whoever runs against him, as if we needed one.
8
Ask the residents of Porter Ranch about the massive methane leak in SoCalGas’s huge underground storage facility back in 2015. They fell ill a week or more before the gas company “discovered” the leak in their monitoring equipment. So now the EPA will not even require companies to monitor their facilities?! That leak was the largest ever in this country—and it had a huge effect on releasing methane into OUR environment. It was bad enough that these companies have no emergency contingency plans—no rapid response to a catastrophe in the making.
7
Trump is helping to increase awareness of global warming, just like he increased awareness of racism.
Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, but its time scale for decaying away is 30 years, not 300 years. At least the damage done in 1.5 years before the new administration issues new rules will decay away in a relatively short time.
What effect will the rollback have on methane emissions? I expect that operationally it will make for less care taken to avoid leaking methane, but since no sensible energy company thinks this will last, the improvements to infrastructure and facilities needed to reduce escaping methane will continue, albeit, probably at a lower pace.
4
I sincerely hope these companies will do what the auto makers did, and what we all attempt to do daily. Ignore him. He is irrational. Everything is personal for him now; everything democrats want or Obama did he wants to erase, even when the companies that benefit say no thank you. These rollbacks will be undone anyway; keep your systems and your plans as they are, please.
9
@Simon N Son " Everything is personal for him now" Not just now. Everything has always been personal for him. That's why he stopped talking to so many onetime friends: They had the nerve to question one of his comments...or even to believe a "her" about something he did.
@Simon N Son That's what the Navajo said about the Europeans. "These invasions will be undone anyway; keep your wigwams and campfires as they are, please."
So, okay, they were just a little off the mark, but that's no big deal.
It might be seen as some as a flimsy comparison, but this former American History teacher sees some parallels between the labor union movement and the environmental movement.
From the late 1800's to their pinnacles of power and achievement by the 1950's the labor unions literally at times fought for the rights of workers against business and corporate powers and made significant gains for the blue collar(and later white collar like teachers) workers, gaining protection of their rights in the work place as well as raising the wages they earned. But today the unions are significantly weaker; in no small part I would suggest, because workers came to assume these protections were always 'there' and they were their 'rights'.
Similary, the environmental movement, starting in earnest in the 1970's, finally was able to confront the unbridled powers of industrial magnates and corporate structures with the power of federal and state; uh oh, here's the R word" REGULATIONS. Historical achievements were made in the last 30 years of the 20th century, and practically an entire generation has grown up in our country 'assuming' that these environmental protections would always be there.
Now they are under attack; Trump, in exchange of the financial backing of wealthy business leaders, is undoing 50 years of protection of our natural world.
What kind of world will our children and grandchildren no inherit?
6
Putting the environmental and climate consequences of this to one side, is this really good politics ? How many votes is additional methane in the air going to win him in 2020 ? Is this what we have been thirsting for ?
5
@Helmut Wallenfels
For more than a decade now, the GOP is no longer interested in "good politics" at all.
That's why they had to create Fox News: they vitally NEED a constant barrage of fake news to keep their voters fired up and totally ignorant of who does what in DC.
And then Trump turned out to be their perfect clown: someone utterly uninterested in policy, and who adores watching tv and retweeting controversial Fox News lines, which makes the GOP base imagine that "he gets it!".
2
It depends on how much money the Lobbying companies give him
Future generations are going to be pretty angry that we didn’t do enough to stop this.
Sending tweets and posting on Instagram does not count as activism.
If you haven’t attended a protest in person, volunteered to support a political campaign for someone who isn’t deranged, donated money commensurate with your means to an activist organization or worthy campaign, or otherwise DONE something to resist the Trump regime, then I am sorry, but I am going to have to revoke your “But I’m a nice person with good intentions” card.
12
@Austin Ouellette
All good things and please include these too:
Stop buying bottled water - carry your own bottle
Carry your own reusable straw
Carry your own reusable shopping bags
carpool every chance you can
buy hybrid or electric car
reuse, re-purpose, recycle
buy less - at lot less
2
@Austin Ouellette
You are right. Just add to your list: vote in November 2020.
2
We the many People around the world who value the peace and security that can only be provided by a living world need to seriously sidestep the Profiteers in Poison and Profit.
For the technology-minded: think beyond both fossil fuels AND the heavy production footprint of solar and wind as we know it, to embrace the possibilities of "energy kites" (look up Makani, and Google X labs for the tech) that are currently capable of powering 300 homes. Suppose we side-step the wranglings over profits and contracts and shareholders, and instead go ahead and 3D print these, using the plastics and such now languishing in our oceans and overwrought recycling facilities? Put one on every public school, to start. Prove to our children that there are solutions, and we care.
All of us: respect the presence of plant-life for the actual source of life it is, and increase the roots and leaves as much as possible. Drastically reduce mowing, wherever possible (hello, U.S. Climate Mayors and churches and the many businesses that currently have brown stubble as a result of default "lawncare"). Plant trees and wildflower gardens, on the right of ways, and all around our homes and our schools.
Concrete is not our friend. Resist "new developments." Rehab and repurpose shuttered big-box stores and factories. Those remaining patches of trees and fields and old farmland you see for sale are already have important, useful things happening.
We must assert our agency.
4
So the energy companies oppose the rollbacks and he's trying to do them anyway. He's just a Bond villain at this point, right?
10
Trump isn't worried about the consequences of his actions. He's only concerned with the money.
5
Why are reporters still dealing with this administration rather than the industry leaders.
It's simple: every time the administration rolls back a key environmental or financial regulation, reporters need to go immediately to the top 5 industry leaders and have them address the issue. Get the firms on the record.
If they intent to adhere to the existing regulation, then monitoring will not be an issue. If they don't, then they will get shamed in the media as investigative reporters probe.
Oh yeah, lets not forget that ALL DEM candidates should stand up with ONE MESSAGE: ANY ROLL-BACK WILL BE IMMEDIATELY REINSTATED!
8
Irrational rollback of beneficial regulations: it just does not make sense. Given that several major oil companies have agreed to be regulated for methane, this rollback of regulations is illogical as well as short sighted. One can only hope the expected backlash to senseless deregulation leads to voter expression in the next election.
3
To Mr Trump there is no such thing as climate change.... only weather. This may be more to do with political considerations than empirical logic. If his supporters and patrons insisted that the world was flat and supported by turtles, so would he.
6
And are these valiant and self-sacrificial champions of environmental responsibility at BP and Exxon be willing to withdraw their contributions from politicians who support these measures? From those politicians who fail to speak out against the policies? Maybe they prefer the regulations to a massive switch to renewables...
5
I just went to the EPA website and read the Regulatory Impact Analysis regarding the rollback of the methane regulations. The RIA states: "As methane control options are redundant with VOC control options, there are no expected cost or emissions effects from removing the methane requirements in the production and processing segments." The article doesn't address whether this claim is true or not. I'm no defender of the Trump administration but I am a defender of good reporting. This claim should have been addressed in this article.
3
@Roger So why remove the law if there is allegedly no impact. I would note that VOC control "options" does not sound particularly binding or enforceable.
IMO the regulation should simply stay in place.
3
@Roger So why remove the law if there is allegedly no impact. I would note that VOC control "options" does not sound particularly binding or enforceable. Looking at the 2016 announcement it was simply adding to the 2012 regulation, which only applied "to curb VOC emissions from new, reconstructed and modified sources in the oil and gas industry"
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/nsps-overview-fs.pdf which suggests to me the 2016 rule may have removed grandfathering, and that is the key target of this change. Another follow the money situation as someone is being done a favor.
IMO the regulation should simply stay in place.
1
This is terrilbe news, but on the bright side I am heartened that it's the lead story with over 1,400 comments and counting. I feel like even a year ago stories about Trump's environmental misdeeds were at the bottom of the page with several hundred comments at most.
14
EIA.gov reports that in 2018 43 us oil producers had net income of 28 billion dollars. One assumes that these producers are currently attempting to adhere to the current rules prohibiting methane release into the atmosphere. Saving these producers less than 20 million dollars annually amounts to less than a 0.07 percent increase in net income.
A recent large methane release in California had a huge global warming effect and resulted in the evacuation of 10,000 people from their homes. The direct cost of this one event, relocation, health care costs, etc. dwarfs the cost of compliance with current rules. Not to mention that those costs are borne by the public at large suffering the effects of exposure to this pollutant.
It is reasonable to ask why oil and gas companies are resisting weakening existing rules. I would postulate that it is because they realize that the current spate of environmental degradation insanity will end and the backlash, legal and political will be terrible for their bottom line.
5
Should we just go ahead and blow up the planet now? How can these people sleep at night knowing that they are destroying our planet. No amount of money will save these people at some point.
14
Apologize to your children for letting this monster remain in power.
16
The Republican Party and Trump are engaged in an attack on the environment on which we all depend for our existence. It defines by example a crime against humanity.
Democrats must make it clear to the oil and gas companies that when they return to power, those companies will be required to retrofit the necessary equipment regardless of the cost to them, and that they will be taxed to finance whatever measures are necessary to redress the damage they have done. In short, they must be made to understand that any profit they may gain by cooperating with Trump will cost them dearly in the near future.
9
Industry leaders would do well to ignore this man and his crazed crusade to roll back environmental rules. The smart people see he may very well be gone soon and they will be left holding the bag, with all these rejected environmental regulations put right back in place by the next president (and more) and their public stature even worse off than now. My hope is that all this Trump insanity will ultimately hasten the day when we dramatically turn away from these 19th century polluting energy sources.
7
Wow! And I would bet that Fox News, the conduit of information to Trump's base is not even mentioning Trump's damaging policies on climate change. If they did, what would his base do? Chant, "burn it up?". This is profoundly devastating. This is an all out assault on our beautiful earth, the air we breath, the water we drink. I am sad to say that Trump may get pleasure out of burning this planet up and no one stopping him. I am ready to vote him out. Now.
8
And yet, there are so many Americans still supporting this president. How is this possible? I am truly troubled and disgusted by Trump but even more by his supporters.
15
Trump loves money more than people ,he always has our draft dodging president has dumped wives as they age and filed bankruptcies often stiffing contractors and banks. Character and morals matter in a president we have neither in Trump and he has shown that to the country and the world. Trump's cowering before Putin is a reflection of his concern only for himself and Putin is a threat to his re-election if he fails to help him again.
5
This isn't just about methane, or climate change, or even profits for the oil and gas industry. It's zealotry, the excessive, immoderate, or fanatic devotion to a cause or ideal, in this case anti-regulatory society. It doesn't matter that abolition of the rule will cost more in the long run. It doesn't matter that it will ruin the environment for the foreseeable future. It doesn't matter that major companies who one might think would benefit from the rollback are arguing to keep the regulation. The Trump administration and especially its zealots in and out of government see the regulatory state as an affront to the principle of free and unfettered capitalism, regardless of the consequences. Next November we need to crush this administration and its allies in Congress, annihilate the movement so that it will never emerge again.
8
I doubt that Democrats have the courage to do anything the country needs so, if that party is given control of Congress and the Presidency next year, I don't have my hopes too high that much will change.
However, on the off chance that the Dems actually want to govern, I suggest they craft a bill that immediately revokes every regulation imposed by the Trump administration. Every one of them. The bill should explicitly restore all regulations crafted by the Obama administration. For every department of the government.
Then fast-track the bill through both chambers after the new Congress starts in early January 2021 so that, when the new president takes office on Jan. 20, she can sign it on day one of her administration.
5
Monstrous, and unforgivable. When even the oil and auto industries are against rollback of EPA regulations, this is simply undoing Obama's legacy, no matter the cost.
7
Look at all the headlines on today's front page,
"E.P.A. to Roll Back Regulations on Methane, a Potent Greenhouse Gas",
"Sick Migrants Undergoing Lifesaving Care Can Now Be Deported",
"Comey Is Criticized by Justice Dept. Watchdog for Violating F.B.I. Rules",
"Hurricane Dorian Is on Course to Hit Florida as a Category 4 Storm". {While Trump diverts emergency funding to support his immoral border plan. (My notation)}
My stomach churns at the degree of damage that Trump is doing to our nation while his fellow Republicans sit on their hands. What has happened to our values and us as a people? Why are we are powerless to stop the carnage that this man is inflicting. All moral decency has left the Republican Party. They have no shame, only greed and the desire to survive at all costs.
America and its people will suffer for generations from the intentional and willful destruction of our environment. Our children and grandchildren will be burdened by historic debt. Many will suffer from lack of proper healthcare. Our standing and credibility on the world stage has been trashed. Our Allies are becoming our adversaries and our enemies are our presidents BFF's. Nothing makes any sense and nobody cares enough to do anything about it.
And for what? Why is this man being allowed to rape our nation in front of our eyes?
The Republican party will have a lot to answer for in 2020 and in the history books yet to be written.
20
@Larry
yes, yes and yes
Of course they are. We simply are not destroying the planet fast enough.
2
Wow. The goal now is just to do as much damage as he possibly can while he's still in office. I wouldn't put it past him to try to blow up the planet on his last day. I guess it's foolish of me still to hold out hope that Congress will wake up and care -- but some of those guys must have children and grandchildren, who will have to try to exist on this sadly diminshed earth?
527
@Standup Girl No, he's not actually trying to do damage. He's just trying to enable his friends (and his own money managers) to make huge profits from his time in office.
If the planet and/or its living things are damaged in the process...well, that's what sometimes happens in business.
38
@Standup Girl
What's hard for me to understand, in terms of your observation that members of Congress have children and grandchildren: on issues like climate disruption and gun violence, why DON'T they care?
A gated community, social and economic class, private schools: none of these things protect anyone from pollution and other immediate consequences of reckless public policy related to climate -- but also, with more guns than people at large in the U.S. right now, no one can feel safe moving about in parks, schools, places of worship, stores, etc. No one. No one is safe. So what are the Republicans thinking exactly? That everyone will shop online, travel in armored vehicles, live in climate controlled underground bunkers? What is the future they are envisioning with these policies?
It seems that narcissistic, sociopathic tendencies are not just limited to Trump and Massacre Mitch, but dominate the entire Republican "leadership" who live in some delusional dystopia of their own minds that no one matters or exists except themselves. Not their children, not their loved ones, not grandchildren. All that exists is their god complex.
The ultimate irony of their constantly invoking religion is that they seem to believe only in themselves as gods.
49
@Standup Girl
Completely agree. Unfortunately this is Trump’s definition of making America great again.
23
Mr. trump and his republican cronies' agenda is just anti President Obama, whatever it is. Ther eis a dire need to get rid of them as much as possible in Nov 2020.
6
Trump is not only a patalogical liar he also is a criminal. His policies will increase the pollution and lead to thousands of additional death all over the globe. The world would need USA to lead the fight against global warming instead we get a pathetic idiot that is destroying the already lax pollution regulations.
Poor USA, poor world
12
Where are all the so-called "god loving" evangelicals on this subject? Do they truly care about God's creations---namely, the EARTH! Greedy hypocrites filling their televangelism coffers from magical thinking gullible followers who only care about embryos, not children's futures.
16
@cassandra
They (the Evangelicals) are the ones behind putting their "chosen one" into this position, along with Pence, De Vos, Pompeo who also all believe in this idea that they have control over who they put into power to speed up the apocalypse and the Second Coming of Jesus. How perfect. Trump is speeding things along.
6
@cassandra
They are likely unaware. They have been brainwashed that anything reported by anyone other than fox is 'fake news'. A
And fox is careful not to report this kind of news.
Look at their headlines at this very moment. They are full-throttle anti-Comey propaganda and their subhead is how the Democrats are courting 'nonreligious' voters and are criticizing 'religious liberty'. This is exactly how they keep their followers living in the dark, and in fear.
6
@KLA
A "cabinet" of horrors if ever there was one.
Shameful...and creepy.
1
This is the exact equivalent of genocide and should be prosecuted as such.
15
This man is so shallow, so devoid of intelligence, and so incredibly hatefuly and vindicitve, that this is simply about Obamahate. His focus is to simply undo anything he did. Period.
9
@Wamsutta Yes, but not quite "simply." There's an awful lot of money at stake for both himself and his backroom buddies.
3
I wonder when this administration will bring back segregation?
Just to be in line with its other policies and rollbacks of common sense regulations.
Next in line is abolishing the 40 hour work week, child labor (under 14) and at last ...slavery!
This is a short list, but the administration does not have much time left so it better hurry up in the race to the bottom!
5
These are crimes against humanity on a par with war crimes. Nuremberg style tribunals for Republican climate change delayers, deniers and despoilers, with Nuremberg style penalties.
No Republicans in 2020. None. Not one.
13
This is disgusting. Why can the administration make a unilateral decision to do this? Are there no safeguards, no oversight? We are literally watching the world burn.
6
Pence, Pompeo, De Vos and possibly Trump are all Evangelical Christians who believe in a very self-interested interpretation of Revelations. They believe God is giving them the power to place leaders in an effort to fulfill the prophesy of the end times so they will speed up the second coming of Jesus. As for Trump, they love him, but not his sins. He is really just a chess move to get everything in place to speed up the apocalypse.
And look at Trump go...
7
@KLA "He is really just a chess move"
It's called ROOKED.
2
@KLA
Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.
@kenneth
Yes it is. :)
Understanding the Science Report Results which detail the man-made component of Climate Change, does not require an advanced degree in atmospheric chemistry.
Much has been written in plain language where anyone with a high school diploma can readily understand.
Assuming that "every" GOP lawmaker has at least graduated from high school, it would be impossible for them to have "missed the reality" . . .
The Reality which has been nearly unanimously agreed to by experts in the field from around the world.
The Reality that states how industrial activities of "man" are directly linked to climate change and global warming.
The Reality that fully explains just how close we are to the "Tipping Point" - of no return.
I find it beyond "stunning" how the country who was first on the moon - - - has become the most Anti-Science Industrialized Country on Earth !
The Trump administration, and the spineless GOP lawmakers are spitting in the face of the future for our children, and their children.
To allow petroleum companies to make even more money, the GOP will destroy the already too weak protections we have in place.
Although probably not "listed" as an "Impeachable Offense" . . . .
What Trump and the GOP are doing are;
Crimes against Humanity !
We must stop them - ALL of them !
9
@Leonard Dornbush "Assuming that "every" GOP lawmaker has at least graduated from high school, it would be impossible for them to have "missed the reality" . . . " AND assuming they have actually READ the results.
Reading more about the thawing of the permafrost and its connection the release of methane and CO2 - and also its connection to the opening of oil and minerals.
For God's Sakes! When is somebody going to stop Trump? What is going on here? He is destroying the planet for a quick buck, destroying millions of people's peace of mind, destroying the USA's reputation in the eyes of the world, destroying the country from within.
When will somebody do the right thing and get him out? I don't have the power to do it but I tell you I'd do it if I could.
We need a hero. Step up.
1144
@KLA Every time I hear pleas like yours I think of that Twilight Zone episode with Bill Mummy, the little mind-reading "monster" who could wish people into the cornfield, the scene at his birthday party where the man tries to distract the boy, shouting, "Won't someone do something? Someone bash him in the head!" But alas, no one does.
Democrats, hello? Anyone out there? I hear a lot of barking....anyone? The level of corruption and criminality is rising faster than the warming oceans. But still, Nancy just fiddles with the beads around her neck while she "strategizes."
98
@Gustav Aschenbach The DNC just voted resoundingly to not hold a debate among candidates devoted specifically to climate change. There is no one home at the DNC. We have to look elsewhere to stop Trump's destruction of the country and the world.
105
@Gustav Aschenbach
Democrats, hello? What about Republicans???? They have children and grandchildren. I'm so sick of hearing what Democrats should do when the other political party does nothing, worse than nothing.
204
It seems like reverse evolution of the species Republicanus Americana. Incapable of recognising any purpose other than to accumulate pieces of paper called dollars, it has ensured its destruction by permanent loss of its habitat. It has a life cycle of every four years and its existence is determined by this.
3
Read it, and weep, how anyone can rationalize this and the rest of the environmental destruction this administration has brought forth is a question that has to be highlighted, empowered and asked over and over.
What are we hearing from our elected representatives? Crickets.
Republicans seem able to take anything and everything to court while Democrats sit on their hands.
One would think that the destruction of our life support systems would get more of a rise out of everybody!
2
Trump, our Failure-in-Chief, will go down in history as one of our most destructive presidents ever. His reckless disregard for facts and our future is beyond understanding and forgiveness.
2
Madness.
8
I am not a lawyer and I hope some who are will weigh in on this: Can anything, legal wise, (besides wait for elections to boot out the would-be-murderers) be done now to stop this obvious disregard for the health and lives of the American people? Our own government is abetting manslaughter through the INTENTIONAL release of well documented harmful poisons in the environment. As a person suffering from allergies and asthma, I know how the new EPA policy will affect me. I may not know how long it will take for this money grubbing administration to cause my demise if I die of their deliberate disregard for my health and life but if something can be done to stop and punish them for their criminal ill will, somebody... do something to save lives, NOW.
3
Timed perfectly to coincide with arrival of Thunberg.
2
Trump should just save himself the hassle and eliminate the EPA, period, instead of killing it by a thousand small cuts. This shows just how derailed the GOP has become since 1970, when the agency was founded by that true visionary, Richard Nixon.
I don’t understand how Trump thinks he and his buddies will continue to make a buck, if the environment is dead and we’re all following closely behind.
Methane has 60x heat trapping characteristics when compared to Carbon.
It's actually the most obvious and direct way to impact the heat trapping profile of human based emissions. This rollback unfortunately has only one consideration - it's something "Obama did" and is therefore worthy of removal.
It's moves like these which pull the pendulum harder to the political extreme. When it swings back, it will yield true left wing radicalism.
And we will have Trump and his supporters and enablers to thank for that.
3
This is bad, for sure, I hope this is not another Trump diversion from something even worse.
2
That their are people in government who possess such a disdain for the lives of the people of this country and for that matter the world is simply sad. You know you're in a time warp when the oil and gas companies oppose such regulation but the government insists on having it.
3
@Carlton
The same thing is happening with car emissions in California. The administration is insisting on rolling back emissions levels but many of the car companies don't want to do it. They'd rather stick with the California standards.
2
This is the beginning of the end for our species.
2
@Peter the end of our species would be the best thing for the planet and every other living thing on it.
4
What the criminally inept Pruitt couldn’t accomplish, the equally malign, but infinitely more competent Wheeler got done. Trump probably doesn’t know he uses something called methane in a gas stove, but he is on board opposing anything he senses more intelligent people are for.
1
Instead of policy to solve national problems, what we get from this White House is, "That'll show the liberals and Environmentalists!"
2
The Trump administration in a nutshell: Burn everything.
3
We just can’t wait to end this silly experiment called Homo sapien, i.e., “wise man”.
2
It is true that industry has a natural incentive to reduce emissions of a valuable commodity. But if it were a sufficient incentive, there would have been no need to require specific equipment and techniques for mitigation.
The "in your face" style of the administration, in many fields and even sometimes in the absence of industry lobbying for the changes, must be a reflection of the "Steve Bannon Principle." That principle is to bring "disruptive change" to governance, and to reduce regulation to the level of the late 19th century, when there were few protections for consumers or the environment.
The intent, and the openness, are without precedent since those days of Robber Barons and rampant exploitation of resources.
3
We should not forget that he does something this obnoxious mostly when there is the greatest need to deflect attention: in this case from the Deutsche bank records and the more unhinged than usual public appearances he has made. Curiously, big fossil fuels does not want this, given how it undercuts their favorite talking point about natural gas being somewhat cleaner than coal and oil. It is hard to say what long term effect this will have, eliminating natural gas does depend on the pace of the increasing capabilities of wind and solar as well as battery storage. Those all are influenced in part by government programs to help boost early renewables, and by hurting the reputation of natural gas this move may accelerate future government subsidies. At some point none of this will matter, since the economics of renewables will eventually make fracking obsolete. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a21756137/renewables-50-percent-energy-2050/ The concern remains that even this may be too little too late.
1
I can only think that trump comes up with such awful anti-environmental policies as another sign of his cruelty and "in your face" lust for money and power.
3
@merrytrare There's gold in them thar deadly gases !
3
Rename the EPA to Environmental Pollution Agency! The brazen criminality of this administration and the Americans who are executing these 19th century policies requires everyone to rise up and fight back! Vote these criminals out of office!!!
2
This is like cartoon villain levels of evil
7
Governor Inslee, where are you?
1
It's only air. It's not like something we depend on to subsist. Well, yes, some frail old folks might get sick or die, but that's
a small price to pay for corporate profitability and stock dividends .
There's gold in them thar gases !
3
Our president is unhinged and literally a danger to the human race. This is the last straw. Please write to your representatives and ask them to impeach this mad man.
3
@Tony Oh, but he (Trump businesses) and his handlers are making so much money out of all this. It would be a pity to see those profits go away just to save the health and lives of millions of "ordinary" people at home and abroad. (Not to mention the home itself.)
2
The great divider hits again. This time failing to divide me and BigOil. Unbelievable!
1
Trump supporters, remember that you tell your grandchildren that it’s okay that the earth is burning, because your stock went up a quarter point.
1
So, the detestable trump greets Greta Thunberg's arrival with this insulting development.
Of course trump looks like a dust mite next to Thunberg, who is someone with integrity and conviction.
Go Greta!
6
Seriously, he needs to be locked up.
7
Depressing
2
Dirty air is good for your children! Ask any Trump supporter.
3
So after decades of environmental debate and legislation, from Richard Nixon's sign off on the creation of the EPA in 1972, and all of the subsequent Clean Air/Water Acts and regulations ever since, we let this science denying rogue regime undo long-standing environmental regulations at the drop of a hat, by Executive fiat? Hey Congress? Anyone home? Someday aliens will gaze down at a scorched dead Earth and say, "Hey it was a great green planet till those climate-change denying clowns took over."
6
@Chip Lovitt Too many of us talk about them as "science denying" when in fact they are "science repelling." There's so much profit at stake.
1
Under 100 year perspective, Methane is considered to be 24 times as much climate heating as CO2, but Methane breaks down in the athmosphere in about 12 years. Considering this, in a short term perspective of 20 to 10 years Methane has 240 to 120 times climate heating effect. We have to reduce heating NOW. Eiter Trump is ignorant or he does not care a bit even about the live of his own kids.
5
I feel sick inside. It was bad enough to see calamity ahead and do nothing. It is reprehensible to intentionally make things worse. Another commenter called America a "pariah nation." We are truly reaching that point.
6
Environmental Pollution Agency
7
So who wants this ?the last Koch brother ? Its somebody with money.
7
""This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper." -- T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men."
4
Another of nearly a thousand reasons to get rid of Trump. To be clear, either at the ballot box or impeachment.
5
Trump is clearly the real “enemy of the people.” Rolling back basic environmental protection, taking back civil rights, coarsening the national discourse and of course being a corrupt pathological liar.
1
How can you “Make America Great Again” when you accelerate scorched earth policies to destroy it? Just to benefit your RICH friends. Marie Antoinette May have said, “Let them eat cake”. Trump says, to his rich friends “Let them eat and drink pollutants”. “I don’t care. Do you?” “Let’s keep counting our haul.” The the Republicans nod their heads in silent agreement.
1
@S Fred No, they are not all nodding their heads. Many or most are just turning their heads away so they won't have to see the threat...and therefore there is no threat.
2
Why and how is Donald Trump allowed to continue on his warpath against our fragile Planet Earth? We have a willfully ignorant and dangerous man as our president, and with each day his destructive moves put us all in further danger. The time for impeachment is NOW.
3
@Lolostar How? Quite simple. His batteries are charged by a "negative" stream of corporate greed.
3
Very respectfully,Trump and his cabinet, especially Andrew Wheeler, are the "enemies of decent people".
They are destroying our earth and us, since their only code is destruction and wealth. They do not have a shred of decency within them for our earth and all our inhabitants!
And of course, they are gaming the system, so nothing bad will happen to them and theirs, when they move to the moon or Mars, when the earth is too lethal to live here!!
1
@Quandry They're not moving anywhere. They'll be gone altogether by then. But for now they can live and rule regally (if not always legally), and "later" will be somebody else's problem.
1
And his trade war with China is encouraging Brazilian farmers to cut down trees in the Amazon and burn land to grow crops China will buy.
2
Why do these people want to destroy the world.
6
If anything was done by Obama, Trump is determined to undo it. Trump never forgot Obama's roast of him at the annual press dinner. A narcissist never forgets the slightest attack on the ego, real or imagined.
3
As a conservative republican in New York State, who didn’t vote for either Trump or Hilary ( I voted for Johnson trying in my small way to lessen the margin of victory for Hilary), I find this to be an abomination. Can’t we have him declared insane or something equally effective to rid ourselves of this incompetent and morally compromised individual?
4
It's become increasingly difficult to be astonished any more by anything that this misbegotten administration does, but this comes close. We'll be paying the price for our misadventure of electing Trump president long after he's gone.
5
It is almost impossible to understand why Trump does these things. If the oil and gas industry was pushing for this, it would make more sense. But they are not in favor. What is Trump's real motivation here? Everything he does is suspect and never in the best interest of the country.
3
@Christine Healey Really? The oil and gas industries are not pushing for this? Open those closed doors and you might see who's behind this. The Don isn't standing there alone.
This is a crime against all citizens of this country and every other country. It is a crime against wildlife. It is a crime against national parks and forests. It is a crime against children's and humanity's future.
6
This is another play by dt to appeal to his base: small producers who have complained about regulatory costs. He wants to say “I tried to help you but the environmental loonies, your enemies, stymied my efforts. It’s so unfair!”
And/or this is the head of the EPA appeasing dt, but knowing the regulation will be contested and a court decision dragged out for months.
2
@Carol Well, actually, he has a little of his own money in the game as well.
@kenneth Who, Wheeler or dt?
This is Republican boilerplate; has been as long as I recall. Get rid of regulations. They hinder profit-making. Profit-making is the supreme goal. Outrage as expressed here is ineffective. Voting is effective for candidates who are electable and will protect and restore regulations essential to our collective health. We bring this on ourselves when we vote for fringe and third party candidates who can't possibly win but do so because they are "green" and we want to make a statement or show our protest. Or maybe we just sit out voting to show disapproval. When will we learn?
@blgreenie Oh, so if we vote against the "green," we might save the earth? Interesting approach.
It is impossible for me to believe that all of Trump's dismantling of important programs in all areas is nothing more than a childish vendetta against anything related to President Obama. The country cannot survive a two-term Trump presidency or another farcical Democratic candidate. We are in a deep, deep swamp.
9
Once we’ve reached the point of no return regarding climate change Trump will, true to form, blame the Democrats, Obama, Hillary and/or the news media. Nothing is ever his fault.
6
@Bob Hawthorne Actually, he'll be gone by then, and the residual problem will be ours alone.
2
This administration seems determined to land on the wrong side of history on every possible issue. Unfortunately, environmental catastrophe may make history decidedly shorter for the human race. All so a few million might be saved by a hundred-billion dollar industry. Exreme narcissism and greed, writ planet-size large.
5
Totally out of control is the donald.
1
This can't just be the Kochs and other special interests. He's just out to attack environmentalism for spite, or for some misguided beliefs he holds that are immune to reason or facts. He has exceeded the worse fears we had when he was elected. He is a catastrophe, and will leave behind irreparable damage in every area he touches.
4
@Robert Levine spite? misguided? immune? No, Robert, he's just tired of reason and integrity trying to push him around all the time. Now he's making his stand against them and profiting handsomely (if secretly) from it.
This obsession with undoing every accomplishment of the Obama administration is getting ridiculously out of control.
2
Greed and corruption. All part of the destabilizing of our country?
3
Greed is an addiction. The devastation it causes is to the addict and those around him is limitless and unexplainable.
3
This is how thriving human populations become ancient puzzles. Easter Island comes to mind. Clearly we are programmed to self-destruct as there's no fix for stupidity, which is apparently just too seductive not to be secretly admired...by the diminished.
3
How much money are these companies giving to Trump's campaign?
2
It's a disgrace and will affect neighbouring countries like Canada and USA. It's difficult to understand why the continued assault on the environment save for total ignorance.
1
The damage Trump is doing to this country and the world is worse than 9/11, Katrina, and Pearl Harbor all combined. At least those events created some unity of spirit. The outcome of Trump's policies and decisions create nothing but destruction (some irreversible) and division. He is the single worst thing that has ever happened to the USA. GET HIM OUT!!!
2
The Trump administration's latest diabolical decision to sabotage the Earth’s life-sustaining environment that took billions of years to evolve is now beyond the narcissistic insanity of human greed and malice. I cannot fathom anyone who can hear, see, feel, read, or think making such destructive choices … oh wait, perhaps that’s the problem. I’m not just calling out the fool in our White House, but every one of his cronies who have chosen silence. There is no honor in loyalty to either ignorance or evil. Stand up for life – yours, ours, your children’s, your grandchildren’s, and the environment that sustains us all – Please!
2
Just like every other Trump "policy," this move is rooted in one thing: erasing the Black President's record out of pettiness and spite. The auto industry didn't ask for or want relaxation of emission standards and the energy companies don't particularly want this act of pointless climate vandalism - but The World's Tiniest Man continues to build on his legacy of wanton awfulness and stupidity because apparently, that's the allure to his "base."
2
Trump is destroying our children's world.
Some poignant Native American quotes:
"For all of us, becoming indigenous to place means living as if your children's future mattered. To take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it."
— Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
"We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. "
— Crazy Horse
4
More fuel for my suspicion that Trump must have been elected by an army of body-snatching aliens who want to destroy our planet. If you value your children's lives, vote to remove Trump in 2020.
2
Imagine that in the decades following this one the headlines will not be about whether we stop global warming, but rather we will be arguing about how many future generations of us shortsighted homo sapiens there will be. From the looks of things, we're on the road to oblivion.
2
The aving to oil producers in small I heard 20 million a year. The damage to future generations will be in the billions. Ince again we see the GOP deep in the pockets of the worlds top polluters. Remember the GOP's contempt for the rest of us in November 2020. In the GOP money speaks the voters are just fodder for the polling booth. Nothing about this helps working America it lines the pocket of the living Koch boys and the estate of the one that has gone to his just rewards.
It gets harder and harder to get out of bed every day. Why, just why would they do this? this whole administration is profoundly depraved.
3
The high crimes threshold has been met.
5
That this man has support by any American shows how much greed (tax cuts), racism (taking back America), and stupidity ( he's cleaning up the swamp and standing up for the working class) we are capable of. The destruction of the environment and ignoring climate change is really beyond words. I'm exhausted by this con man,his Administration and supporters. These people are really causing me to question how evil looks and operates in modern society.
You'd think that Trump would take the hint when businesses are objecting to the changes. I guess not. Maybe he doesn't understand the art of the deal as well as he says he does. Most presidents would be thrilled to have business on their side when it comes to something like this. Only in America and only Trump.
4
Elections apparently are inadequate for the crises we see around us - the results are too easily manipulated and do not reflect what most people want.
Here, the infrastructure of destruction is well in place, built largely by the GOP over decades. Courts and state TV are aligned to support a craven oligarchy working in sync with fellow plunderers around the world. Voter suppression is all but legalized with Supreme Court rulings.
Mass marches are called for but as we see in Hong Kong have little impact when military and political power is in the hands of the ruthless few.
Revolutions often leave worse in their wake, with untenable casualties.
Most on our struggling planet pray Trump and his fellow nihilists and haters are defeated in 2020. Commenters refer again and again to 2020.
What is plan B?
7
Welcome to your pariah nation, fellow Americans. After doing the greatest damage of all, we not only renounce our responsibility for the deep wounds we've inflicted to our shared planetary home, we will reverse our attempts to do better, deny the reality of science, and accelerate our demise for short term profit. Winning.
495
That, unfortunately, is our reality!
I doubt that our sons, and daughters, and generations to come will forgive us!
24
@Cameron
Does not one republican worry about their children and children's children?
28
@JM
They are all spineless disgraces - slaves to money.
16
If donald"s continued actions makes your blood boil do something.
Buy, rent, lease, some solar panels for your home. They'll pay. They already return more than a CD as an investment.
donald can attempt to stymie logic, science, and common sense but he will never stop the purest form of supply/demand economics.
1
Not that is matters at all but which Trump is this? "Vindictive Donald" who is determined to undue ANYTHING that has President Obama's name attached to it, despite the disastrous consequences of rolling back the policy/regulation? Or is this "Pandering Donald" who craves the support of and campaign contributions from the gargantuan fossil fuel industries and those voters who work for these industries? Or is this "Genius Donald" who knows far more than thousands of scientists around the world who are sounding the dire alarm on human causes of climate change? Needless to say, it is "Disastrous Donald" who must "regulated" out of office NOW for several compelling reasons, not the least of which is the long-term survival of our planet.
3
We now have the auto companies wanting to conform to the CAFE standards under Obama, and big oil opposed to de-regualtion of methane.
What is wrong with Trump supporters that the most capitalistic and polluting industries are against his climate denials?
They don't care, obviously.
We have a Unitary Presidency, not a democracy or even a representative government.
Is this really what the founding fathers wanted? If so, they maybe anticipated a 200 year run.
Get him out 2020!
6
Needless to say, we need to vote Trump out of office. But he can and will accomplish much more destruction in the year and a half till he would be gone. This, at a precarious time for the environment, when EVERY DAY COUNTS.
The GOP has no conscience or courage. The Democratic Party won't impeach him. Should we look to world leaders like Macron? What about the World Court at the Hague - because if this doesn't pertain to the "human right" to continue to exist, I don't know what does. Given all we know about climate devastation - after years of denial - can we call such acts genocidal?
Genocide: "The deliberate killing of a large group of people." Usually it refers to a particular ethnic or racial group, but in this case, the genocide encompasses every one of them - and we all know who will suffer most as the world burns. It won't be people like Donald Trump.
3
Greed has destroyed many civilizations over the eons. It is just a matter of time greed with take us down. Usually when you find out it is to late.
4
Despite all this, tens of millions will vote for him again because something is deeply wrong with our society.
4
And tens of millions more than that need to show up and vote on November 3, 2020.
2
The EPA no longer protects the environment. It is an outdated and bloated agency abused by progressive politicians to enact laws by fiat that they would never get through a democratic process.
When the EPA was created, it was needed. Now that the states have their own very effective DEPs, it is time for EPA, and all its non-elected bureaucrats, to go away
3
@Senate27
Nope. We need rules covering all 50 states, not individual fiefdoms.
3
@caljn
But you are all for "state's rights" when California or NY are creating progressive fiefdoms.
Fail.
@Senate27
Can't believe I need to point this out but it would depend on the subject in question. Pollution is national.
Trump, McConnell, and the fossil fuel industry will be despised and reviled by any civilization that remains in the next 20-50 years.
We must get a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic majority in the senate in 2020 to reverse all the damage that Trump and McConnell have caused. And, combating Climate Change must be their VERY FIRST PRIORITY.
3
The donors feel the need to really finish the job before the next administration. It will take a decade to rebuild the federal agencies Trump and republicans have gutted. Who voted for that? Run on that...pull the blue lever...commit to engaging voter turn out. Show up, be a witness, make sure your vote counted. Ask for a receipt and hold on to it.
4
It is long past time to ask what the Trump administration thinks it is accomplishing. We already know the oil and gas industries can control methane release with a very modest impact on the cost to extract their "product".
While CO2 is the long-term source of global warming, Methane is a very potent accelerant. (A worse accelerant, Freon (chlorofluorocarbons) was controlled to close the "ozone hole" decades ago, reducing overall climate change impact from human caused greenhouse gas releases by about 20%. We can fix greenhouse gas releases if we want to.)
While methane as a byproduct from hydrocarbon extraction industries, by itself, is a major contributor to overall warming, the greater risk is triggering the release of trapped methane in permafrost and methane clathrates.
Trump is playing with matches in a fireworks factory. (see "Hudson Fireworks Company fire, 1955", a childhood memory of mine.) This never ends well.
Those who applaud this behavior should ask themselves if this same behavior would be something they would tolerate in a neighbor, or in their church, or on the highway.
3
The Far Right International will probably destroy the species. Before that happens, though, there'll be a lot of serious violence as people will increasingly realize how a minority is threatening the literal lives of their children, their ability to have anything like a decent life.
The blame will be put on Enemies of the People. Many will fall for it. It will not end well.
Unless, of course, we start turning this around. "Just getting rid of Trump" is necessary but far from sufficient, and if I hear another well-off person whine about how "exhausting" it all is, and why can't we just compromise (moreso) with world-destroyers so they can go back to their softball games and stock tickers...
What do you say to that? It's legion, that attitude; it's everywhere. It's the core message of the Biden campaign. At best it will remove Trump. All for it, but that does NOT destroy Trumpism, which has a massive advantage: as things get worse, as societies can't respond to basic needs increasingly, fascism wins. All they have to do is delay, throw bombs, distract, mess things up, divide.
I really wish I were 79, not 49. I sincerely hope I just have "a bad attitude" but, having read a lot of history, I fear that's not the case, or at least the whole case.
No one's much interested in doing anything different, let alone quickly. And that's what's required...but the fantasyland is just too seductive; the cocktails taste too good; and the horror is too much to face.
Old story.
1
Money and power. Or our children and grandchildren. Which will we choose?
4
Fear not. The one and only true God, Mother Nature, will recover from this. Just as She did, 65 million years ago, when the asteroid impact killed off the dinosaurs, allowing mammals to become the dominant species. Mother Nature will find some new species, possibly less destructive than humanity. We fouled our own nest, and deserve our fate. Unlimited greed has destroyed us.
2
@JSK
I read nearly the exact words you've just written often Please don't tell us to fear not. There are people out there, millions who have not been greedy, who have lived in alignment with Mother Nature. There are new borns. There are vast species of animals and trees and plants and insects.
Actually I am not afraid, but I am very angry at people like you who just sit there and tell me this is inevitable.
1
@KLA
Sorry, didn’t mean to make you angry. If we humans were more rational, there would be no wars, and we would treat others and the environment with sincere respect. But since our history since the beginning was dog eat dog competition for individual survival, this is what we get. Ants are more cooperative than humans. Most of us believe fairy tale supernatural creatures will protect us, with no evidence.
1
Actually, compassion would end all wars. War is coldly, utterly rational and without consideration of anything but itself... just like Trump and all of his supporters.
Under T-Rump they should change the name to Environmental Un-Protection Agency: Anything Goes if it's good for businesses.
So, just how much damage will trump be allowed to unleash before our 'opposition' leader Pelosi starts actual, explicit impeachment hearings? The evidence has piled up. Most House Dems favor impeaching Tsar Trump the Terrible. Where is the protection for this country?
I would put this into the category of roll back everything Obama did. Apparently it is to appeal to Trump supporters who are part of the backlash against Obama. And also it would appear that many of Trump's college degree-lacking supporters just want to get back at the world because they failed to get the necessary 2.0 grade average to graduate. Whatever it is they are holding some sort of grudge and want to take everything down which is exactly what human wrecking ball Trump is engaged in.
1
EPA should now be called Environmental Pollution Agency.
3
I hope everyone has air conditioning and is prepared to stay away from the coast. It's gonna be a wild ride!
It seems that this current administration is securing votes by sacrificing the health of the people and its environment. With these smaller refineries complaining of the costs to keep their plants in compliance, the administration is stepping in and allowing them to bypass regulations that larger corporations have adopted and worked with previous administrations to achieve.
In order to make a future in energy production you need to make sure there's a future for the people who buy and use your product. I don't think this administration is on that plane. They are all about the short term, a handful of voters, and of course, the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!
What happens when you roll back regulation and overlook science, you get something like Flint, MI. The idea of saving money by overlooking the care of the environment is evil. What Trump is doing now will cost so many lives and so much more money to fix and we must never forget he was the one in power who pushed for it.
Trump will be charged with crimes against humanity.
1
Trump's continued assault on our environment is a winning issue for Democrats... why is it that we never hear from the Democratic leadership? When you have an opportunity to diminish and shame this man, you take advantage of it.
2
@Tom The "winning issue" hasn't much to win in the summer of 2019.
If I remember correctly, the methane regulation was Obama's. No surprise if that is correct. I have never seen such hatred for one person and such efforts to retaliate. Trump would destroy our earth to get back at one man and us along with it. Wow.
1
We need to stop narrowly framing fallowing our planetary nest as “climate change” “global warming” “ozone depletion” “greenhouse gases”. What it all really is is — POLLUTION — of our air, water, food, health, moral fiber, quality of life, and our very existence.
Our precious planet is not a junkyard for those chasing profit. To have a united and focussed solution, this insanity must be identified for what it truly is — detrimental to every aspect of life.
@R " narrowly framing fallowing our planetary nest "
Say what ? framing fallowing ?
And this administration had the shameless gall to hold a White House event last month touting their environmental policies. Jaw-dropping as they are unabashed enemies of the environment: withdrawing from the Paris accord, having coal lobbyists run the EPA, pushing for mining in the Border Lakes, drilling in the pristine Alaska Wildlife refuge, pushing automakers to produce less efficient vehicles......this is just off the top of my head
2
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse. We have Trump, the worst person we could possibly have in the white house at this time in history, throwing gasoline on the fires of our own destruction.
He’s trailing in the polls and the Chinese have played him like the fake TV businessman he is and even some of his “base” is starting to figure it out. What is his answer to trade and economic issues? Reckless tariffs, i.e. taxes on Americans, the retaliatory tariffs by the Chinese and harming agricultural exports.
Last week it was rolling back endangered species laws so his rich Republican logging and mining and fossil-fuel donors could rape the land with yet more impunity. And now this. It is a scientific FACT that civilization is rapidly speeding off a cliff specifically because of greenhouse gas emissions and he slams on the gas to accelerate us towards a future of misery and chaos for our children and grandchildren. (For those either reckless or blindly optimistic enough to have any.)
When it comes to crimes against humanity and environmental terrorism, Trump is worse than Saddam Hussein, who dumped hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil into the sea and set hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells on fire.
He needs to be removed from office. NOW. The democrats need to stop dithering. Impeach him. The rest of us MUST vote him out. The survival of the planet and the human race depends on removing him from office.
1
There is not even a dirty-but-cheaper business case for this... this is exactly the plot of The Arrival, a bad sci-fi movie with Charlie Sheen from 1996 in which aliens conspire with political leaders to heat up the climate. If there is no such alien conspiracy, then there is something deeply sick about Trump and his EPA hack...
1
@Bryce Unless you-know-who is the alien.
How many reports do we need to read before we start to understand how serious climate change is? The current administration has pulled a Thelma and Louise and driven straight off a cliff. All common sense; ethics and morals have left the White House. As so called "leaders" (the United States), it's a sad day for Americans who have at least half a brain to understand the significance of what our President is doing.
@John Just one. The one that focuses on Indian Hill or Price Hill ...or wherever we happen to live at that moment.
If you want a future for your children and grandchildren, then vote all Republicans out of office in 2020. Trump is a simple charlatan. He is the tool of people far more nefarious than he is. These oligarchs are willing to destroy the environment for future generations, in trade for their own wealth made today. These monsters of greed own the Republican Party.
But the damage they want to achieve with the environment, by destroying the EPA's oversight, will take years to achieve. There are still good people working in the EPA, who can't wait for Trump and his bought sycophants to be rutted from the Agency. By getting rid of the GOP, we can guarantee I clean future for our children. But we must all vote for our future in 2020. Our children's lives will depend on it!
Is the Trump administration actually a front for some sect of fundamentalist apocalyptic “rupture” fanatics that seek to achieve their demented fantasy during their life time?
There’s no other way I can explain their deep, seething hate for anything to do with nature, environment and conservation.
@Andy
Yes. He and Pence have been placed there. Evangelists believe they are the "chosen ones" that will fulfill prophesy for the end times.
I know. I used to go to churches who preached this. These churches get tax breaks and no one enters them and ever questions what they are teaching.
Yo're really just got to shake your head. Andrew Wheeler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_R._Wheeler
Here's your head of the EPA. A coal industry lobbyist. These thieves are really trying to take the country back to the 19th century. In more ways than one. I at least get Trump's agenda. This is legislation that was part of Obama's legacy. Trump's obsession with all things Obama seems to be the driver behind everything he does. Pretty strange, actually. Kind of ironic that the US has been watchdogging Brasil over their burning of the Amazon rain forest. Who is going to watchdog us ?
The photo of Wheeler holding a single use plastic bottle says it all.
Human avarice knows no bounds, respects no living thing, thinks not of humanity's or the planet's future, offloads costs on everyone and every living thing.
Humans hooked on greed and power are basically insatiable gullets, and that is about it.
The shame is that these insatiable avarice junkies constitute a significant proportion, if not majority, of our business leaders, our policymakers, and our elected politicians.
MB
1
EPA under Trump now stands for Environmental Pollution Agency.
Perhaps if Trump has some kind of belief that releasing more methane into the atmosphere will not harm the climate then I suggest a huge tent be placed over Trump's palaces and methane, along with car exhaust, be pumped into said tents.
Then perhaps he would understand his folly. Or not.
1
What motivates Trump to do such an obviously wrong-headed reversal of important regulations? A pragmatist would say that complying with these regulations costs energy companies money, and non-compliance will increase their profits. But the style of these attacks on environmental regulations doesn't just look like profit-motivated greed - it's too obvious. It seems like a deliberate slap in the face to progressive-minded people who want a better country and healthier planet. It seems like Trump is intentionally attacking the things we hold most dear, with the purpose of maximizing the emotional damage.
Donald Trump is not a "public servant" in any conventional sense - he is not motivated by any philosophy of national advancement, however misguided. He is simply trying to inflate his ego by doing as much damage as possible to anyone who opposes him - a thoroughly juvenile exercise of power (I can not call it "leadership"). How much damage will his self-indulgence cause? We have to get rid of this guy.
493
@ASM Trump's acceptance of Russia annexing Crimea makes sense because it is something Putin probably asked him to do. But methane harms the whole world. I wonder if this latest dumb Trump decision is from people in the oil and gas industries, maybe with a promised contribution to his campaign if he obeys? He is obviously trashing all kinds of other regulations for their benefit (e.g., the drilling and mining in national parks, the opening of Alaskan wilderness to exploration & drilling). The GOP general policy is that all regulations that inhibit corporations in any way are bad. But with Trump,the underlying motive is almost always his personal benefit.
9
@ASM Help get out the vote now, when there's time to reach whole groups. swingleft.org is just one organization doing that. Or of course, help out Stacey Abrams and team, who are working to end voter suppression, now.
https://staceyabrams.com/count-every-vote/
12
@ASM
My guess one motivation for Trump is to undo anything with Obama's name on it.
22
Here we go again...
“Over all, carbon dioxide is the most significant greenhouse gas,....”
No—it’s not! Water Vapor is at ca. 95%! Why is it that reporters, IPCC scientists and their marketeers go out of their way to negate the elephant in the room?!
They say CO2 lingers but water vapor does not; how high does the percentage have to be to consider it lingering?
1
Trump is a perpetrator of crimes against humanity. The earth is alive with all nature and living beings who by the mystery of all mysteries dwell here. Trump only worships the green of money. His actions are desecrating and destroying life’s home ~ our earth. The world should weep and rebel. I pray humankind and God can right this forever wrong before it is too late...
1
Even if you believe Climate Change is a hoax, don’t you want your air, rivers, and land clean?
Even NRA members who must go hunting and fishing, don’t they want clean rivers, oceans, and wilderness?
2
Every day this fake president and his cabal of thieves give the middle finger to children-- whether it's poisoning them with more mercury and pesticides, increasing rates of childhood asthma, getting them shot to death in in their classrooms, or now this latest move by Wheeler at the "EPA": accelerating the rate of catastrophic, human-caused global heating.
And still, millions of American dupes are just fine with what amounts to mass child murder. Is this what so many Americans soldiers died to protect? Is this what Americans are so proud of-- murdering children and destroying their future for a little more profit margin today? It's despicable.
Make America Gasp Again.
1
Hey 2020! Can you please get here a little faster?
1
Can anything be done to stop him before he kills us all?
2
trump is a spiteful ignorant person who will do anything to eliminate anything that President Obama did. To the point of putting us all in danger.
I wonder if trump believes he and his family are immune to the effects of global warming? Does he and his minions' believe they will not be victims to the destruction they are supporting? I guess not.
As for the EPA, the name should be changed to the EDA, as in The Environmental Destruction Agency.
Stupid. Yes methane is valuable - in the right quantities and the right location. The regulations provide the incentive to move it.
A greenhouse gas tax would provide a better incentive.
The sheer nihilism and ignorance of Trump and his immoral plutocratic backers is disgusting. And it's all so retrograde.
1
It would certainly be unprecedented, but I think those Democratic candidates running for President, should sign a position letter. It should begin stating that those companies running rough shot over environmental policies, They will be reversed after the election and if those companies do any environmental damage, they will be held responsible for the cleanup and possible prosecution. It should inform those states that actively attempt to limit minority voting rights, will be will be held to account. It should clearly states that ripping children from their parents and other unjustifiable behavior is akin to the Japanese interment during WWII. It will be one of the first obligations of the new administration to put everything right for these families and apply to them descent treatment under the law. Finally, it should state that a new sheriff will be in town at Justice and abuses of power will be set right.
1
One thing I must admit about republicans. They are confident if not competent. I never heard a single democratic leader - Speaker, Senate Majority Leader or even a presidential candidate that they will ROLL BACK and UNDO every major law / regulation enacted by a republican.
I think I understand the reason, democrats are serving the same camp as republicans. You may say I am jaded
It is time for all of us to come to NYC to support the young woman from Sweden who is speaking on climate change. We need political and personal will to alter our own history.
4
Even though industries have opposed the changes to regulations regarding methane and auto emissions, the effects will be to force companies who have been complying to stop doing so. The reason are markets. Markets oppose costs which can be eliminated, and regulations are costs that can be eliminated. Trump and his cohort of advocates for profits before life are going to poison our water and air and accelerate global warming because they can.
4
Sort of, but the point is also that waste and inefficiency, as well as clinging to old tech, seriously cut into your long-term economic prospects.
Major moves like this happen because somebody is pushing for the change. It certainly couldn't spring from some all-embracing vision in the mighty mind of Donald Trump.
So who wants this change? The story really doesn't say. A few small producers who feel a competitive disadvantage just isn't enough. Trump runs with the big boys anyway.
There is a lot missing from this article.
5
We have to stop relying on anyone anywhere near Trump or the federal government to do anything regarding these regulations. They appear to be unmoved by any of the concerns being raised.
That being said, maybe, just maybe, the people in charge of these corporations that have been following these regulations could, for the sake of the planet, just keep following them. If you've been making a profit at the level you are at, for the sake of mankind, self regulate. We don't HAVE to depend on the government to make the right choices for our planet--we can do it on our own. In fact, it looks like we are going to have to. Just a thought.
1
Wheeler spent a decade lobbying for coal and denying global climate realities. Again, no surprise here.
5
EPA is run by a fossil fuel lobbyist. Of course he wants to reverse all EPA regulations. Big payoff when out. Just like senators. The revolving door is to slow they are taking the shuttle. Holds more.
6
Reversing a sensible methane emissions standard. Why? When the harm to people is obvious? Maybe it’s about money.
It takes a sick mind to even consider this move, let alone roll back many other EPA rules intended to improve our state of health.
Every day, it becomes more clear that really sick minds are in charge of our government agencies. Not just those minds in office. It includes some of the voters who support this administration.
This assault on America will be settled at the ballot box. Good or bad.
The policies of both main political parties are easy to distinguish.
Anti-republican is a political position that voters might consider when they vote in November 2020.
5
@Ed C Man Maybe it's about money? What else could it be about?
@PubliusMaximus
Right. No argument.
Beside money, consider hatred, power, tribe, the list is long. Just recall all we read about vicious conduct that occurs every day around the world. Reason rarely enters in. It’s thinking is fundamentalist, religious, tribal and so forth.
Just one case in point: hatred of a successful former President could cause people in power to work to undo that President’s accomplishments. There are outspoken republicans in the Senate and the House who fit that bill.
Remember the forty or fifty votes of the republican-controlled House on legislation to undo the Affordable Care Act. What was the reason for all that?
For years the GOP policy mantra has been "Whatever does the most damage" - period. So none of this should come as a surprise to anyone.
2
Why don't the lawmakers see that the Earth will be fine, its human kind that needs to make a change? Once we are gone the Earth can return to what it was before, no mater how long it takes.
3
With every proposed EPA regulation rolled back by this guy, the entire world and the environment rolls closer to the point of no return.
Perhaps being a single issue voter may not be viewed as the smartest thing to be or do, but in this case, I can only support a presidential candidate who vows to saving and protecting the environment. Without a place for us or our children or grandchildren to live, what else is there?
16
Thank goodness for the public comment and review period, which at least delays implementation of this noxious deregulation. This means a few fewer months of increased methane emissions before a return to sanity reinstates the regulation in some form.
And thank goodness that the large producers understand the benefits of the existing rule -- even if they regard it primarily as a marketing advantage. The large companies' expressed attitude means that -- perhaps -- only smaller producers, less well capitalized, will revert to increased emissions, limiting the damage a bit.
The article does not address whether the proposed new regulation includes the poison pill that prevents another administration from simply reversing it via executive order. As it is, Democrats and remaining enlightened Republicans need to start now to formulate plans on reversing some rules where possible and introducing legislation where necessary; both processes might even improve on previous rules to maintain effectiveness while making the burdens less onerous, especially on smaller businesses.
6
Just the same as automakers - they spent years implementing the stuff, they don't want it changed now.
Does no good.
3
In a previous comment, I suggested - satirically - that Trump might be part of an alien conspiracy to make the earth unsuitable for human life (cf 1996 movie "The Arrival"). And now, even major energy companies think Trump is going too far. The alien conspiracy may not be literally true, but the end result is the same - Trump is an existential threat to all life on this planet.
17
Love Opposition
When legislation starts to fail, every citizen, every company needs to act in a ethical, truthful and sustainable way ... for themselves, for their family and children, for their community, for the country, for humanity and for the world and planet.
9
@Paul Van Beveren, yes. Finger pointing and "they should" will not solve the problem. Massive individual action is needed.
This is the time for Democrats to be clear that when (and not if) they take the presidency and/or the House, that industry will be held to the existing standards and on the same timetable. Roll back at your peril.
California is pursuing a form of this strategy with the auto industry--and it's working. The message to industry is to be part of the history we make today, or be run over and left behind.
11
You know Exxon and a couple other gas companies were for this regulation when it was put in place. It made it way more expensive for local start up companies to compete and gave them a little security. Surprised there isnt a little more push back from them.
I guess the real question is what are we going to do about it. The increase in methane is due to the shut down of coal fire power plants and increase in natural gas plants. While natural gas is cleaner it's causing its own horrible pollution in the process. I really think we need a green new deal but the democrats need to break it apart in phases so the sticker shock doesnt stop it.
For now I hope this gets tied up in court until we get a real president so they can just toss it aside like the joke it is.....
7
@Jordan Slingluff
My brother worked in the gas industry and said this very same thing, when the original E.P.A. regulations were put in place it drove out a lot of small business that couldn’t pay with the retrofit of expensive new methane capture equipment. So there is an argument against these strict methane regulations.
I do not think Trump does not believe in man-made global warming. At best he may believe the situation is not as serious as predicted by most scientists.
However he does not care!
His hatred of Obama and of what he calls the politically correct is such that he is willing to bring down the whole edifice of our civilization.
It's the old saying about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
10
@Ian, I also wonder if there's a certain belief among the very wealthy that they can always secure their own comfort. This, while further enriching themselves by taking advantage of opportunities created by climate change (e.g. buying water rights). It's a twisted and sociopathic game.
When, God willing, the Republican president is ousted from the Oval Office, the House must reign in the “Executive Powers Act” so that say, the Clean Air and Water Act stands untouched! The Senate then MUST debate and vote on this bill and make sure it passes. We are too trusting, and we now see how the Republican president who is a Science denier can wreak havoc on our fragile environment.
As the grandmother of seven little children, the youngest just one month old, i have become an environmental militant on their behalf! I hope all parents and grandparents will join me, we must stop the Republicans from continuing to destroy America!
17
I think this is a great idea, We can start looking like tghe planet Venus even faster than we are doing it now. Bravo.
1
Trump takes his environmental worldview from the captain of the Titanic.
7
He thinks this will make him money and get him re-elected.
3
Trump just doesn’t care. Period. He isn’t “sure about global warming”. With Hurricane Dorian churning to a Category 4 and aiming for Florida; perhaps if Mar-A-Lago were flattened he might actually ponder his recent methane decision, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, the fire in the Amazon, etc. ad nauseam.
But then again maybe not, it’s hard to capture a child’s attention without bright, shiny objects.
6
@denise
Yeah, you need object permanence to actually mourn and react to loss. Trump has none of that.
2
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. He’s a one-man planetary wrecking ball, and the sooner he and his cronies are removed from their positions of power, the better. Really, it can’t come soon enough.
10
Everything Trump does is incredibly consistent with his fondness for hot air.
5
At the rate Trump has been relentlessly pursuing the rolling back of EPA regulations which has targeted almost 80 environmental rules, including those meant to control greenhouse gases, coal ash waste, water pollution, mercury, and smog, these actions will only accelerate and compound the irrevocable damage to this planet and its inhabitants.
Why is it that most people who are not filthy rich are the ones who truly mean "there's more to life than money" when they say it or write it?
What good will all that money do ANYONE when (not if) this planet becomes inhabitable?
7
@Marge Keller
Mars is the new Hamptons!
All the more reason to require fossil fuels to be certified carbon neutral. If you can't sequester four pounds of carbon, you shouldn't burn a gallon of gas. Or, if you can get 3% on your money over 200 years, better invest $.33 cents now to cover the estimated $150 damages (you know what they are) those four pounds of carbon per gallon will cause.
2
this article lacks details that would make it more informative.
for example, how about an analysis of the small companies
argument vs the larger companies. would a 2 tiered regulation
with different rules for small companies get 90 percent of the
desired result anyway?
would a tax on the larger companies offset proportionally
higher expenses on smaller companies?
Gotta love ignorance.
About 272 million years ago, the Permian–Triassic extinction event occurred. The largest extinction recorded in Earth's history.
The major cause was a sudden release of methane into the atmosphere.
From Wikipedia:
Up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species became extinct. It was the largest known mass extinction of insects. Some 57% of all biological families and 83% of all genera became extinct. Because so much biodiversity was lost, the recovery of land-dwelling life took significantly longer than after any other extinction event, possibly up to 10 million years.
Why would any sensible society condone a loosening of methane emission standards?
9
Nuremberg tribunals for climate change deniers, delayers, despoilers. There are crimes against humanity. Trump and Republicans must pay
8
If the Amazon is the the wold's left lung, the US is the cigar the world is smoking. No matter how much we want to quit, Trump just keeps on lighting the match.
481
@Stephen
Roll it back ...
@Stephen If the powers in charge of state government were to climb aboard the climate destruction train that cigar smoke in our little valley will be very toxic.
5
@Dan Right!? We'd end up with state mandates for gas masks every January.
6
This is the Republicans and Trumps greatest madness. I am wore out by CNNs nonstop bashing of Trump. We need a simple and single focus. The media needs to step up and demand this act stop. It is not like a trade war or ineffective ravings on immigration. It is possibly the end of humanity. Media figures call for a boycott of Republicans, of Trump. I believe he is in the early stages of dementia and is getting worse(this can last for years). Remembers when Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, finally stood up against the democratic lies about Vietnam and said it is a waste of lives and at best a stalemate. Businesses and the media and media personalities need to step up. Please, I have a child and grandchild. Their future will be tough but we need not exacerbate the consequences of global warming. It is quite possible that the fate of humanity is at stake.
11
One action everyone can take is to submit comments to the federal register during the required public comment period. The Center for Effective Government and the Brookings Institution provide information on their websites on how to track and comment on proposed regulations. You can also join or follow environmental organizations such as The Sierra Club or Environmental Defense Fund to get updates and assistance with submitting comments and contacting lawmakers. And, of course, Vote! Vote! Vote! every chance you get.
5
@Can’t Wait To Vote Again
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS!!! It's something we can all do aside from fume publicly in a comments section.
1
@Laney
@Can’t Wait To Vote Again
65 million-plus Americans can't wait to vote for Trump in 2020.
Why does a man take actions to destroy his planet, even when the leaders of the industries involved would rather save it?
The sickest of the pathological narcissists are disturbed by the idea that there will be people on the earth after they are gone. That goes contrary to their deeply held picture of reality, which is that other people are not real, and are merely characters in the drama of their own life. So their personal drama often ends with the deaths of many others around them; think Jim Jones or David Koresh.
Trump is doing the same thing on a grander scale. He is incapable of any feeling for the human beings who come after him--on the contrary, he would like to think that there won't be any.
3
Our Orwellian nightmare continues. The Environmental Protection Agency is doing everything but actually protecting the environment. Doubleplus ungood!
1
The Environmental Pollution Agency, "overseen" by an employee of the fossil fuel "industry". Right.
2
Donald Trump has the reverse Midas touch, which is ironic given that he adores golden things so much. I suspect future historians will look back and scratch their heads over Trump's election win and his sustained 40%+ support, but most of us living through this time have some idea what's going on. It's anti-liberal tribalism.
4
The only possible positive light I can see in all of this is that it will wake us up more quickly to our incredible ignorance as a society. Maybe Trump's tenure will provoke a stronger backlash, cause voters to take our elections more seriously, than would have happened without Trump. Perhaps his ghost will haunt us down the road and remind us not to make these kinds of mistakes.
2
I guess the corporations are interesting in rolling back the numbers of citizens in the us as well as keeping immigrants from becoming new ones. I can only hope those responsible will be impacted by their criminality.
"We think it’s a smarter way of targeting methane emissions.”
How would that work exactly, Mr. Milito? No, seriously. Lay it out for us. Connect the dots.
It's all about his base. Large pick-up trucks, guns and the evangelical vote. No more complicated than that. Best the Democrats start really thinking about how best to beat him. Williamson is right, it's not about policy / plan minutia it's leadership, leadership, leadership. With RBG also w serious health concerns there is too much in the balance starting with the planet to endure one more day than necessary of this grifter.
7
It's great that we're all outraged by Trump and Wheeler and the EPA and that we "comment" about it like crazy, but what percentage of all us commenters here are actively working on this EVERY DAY, either by demonstrating or volunteering or calling and writing our representatives or giving real money or something more concrete than talking to like-mindel Times readers. Because that's what it's going to take: Real, hard, concerted effort from all of us, ALL the time. Of course, some people here are working hard on this, but it is time for ALL of us to get to work. The climate really doesn't care if we "comment."
7
@Mac in Jersey
Or placing even one solar panel, if possible. It all adds up.
At least get registered, and vote these...characters...out.
So smaller operators cannot afford to do things properly? Trump's solution for those who cannot make an honest living is to let them turn to crime.
It seems that Trump is looking for the most destructive policies available to destroy the United States and the world. Why? Who benefits?
1
I mean, are they trying to speed up the end of humanity? I really can't wrap my head around this. Sure these greedheads will make a few extra bucks, but do they ever think about the fact that their kids and grandkids still need a habitable planet to survive?
3
Trump’s environmental record is deplorable. Instead of hosting next years G7 at his Doral Golf Club he ought to host it in the Rocky Mountain Flats Wildlife Refuge which has been reported to have 5X the level considered safe of Plutonium. That way he can get a first hand look at what is going on himself and expose world leaders to make America great Plutonium.
3
Trump the Destroyer- of clean air, clean water, peace, prosperity and liberty.
2
Thanks to Donald The Destroyer, the "Environmental Protection Agency" has become an oxymoron.
1
This is simple, wanton destruction.
1
Climate change is a misnomer. It's a human health catastrophe that's happening all around us, one that Republicans continue to worsen in the name of greed. America appears to be a failed experiment. Capitalist interests have gone totally unchecked, resulting in travesty after travesty--guns/opioids/climate crisis/education. We need a revolution in the way we think, and run our country.
1
Everyday, a new low. And now this decision, in the wake of forest fires in Brazil, Canada and Siberia. And a hurricane heading for the middle of Florida.
Unbelievable in its short-sightedness.
1
"Trump Signs Executive Order Mandating that All Preschoolers Start Vaping." That's next.
5
It is now the EDA, Environmental Destruction Agency. The Republican Party,a wholey owned subsidiary of Trump Inc.,funded by the NRA and the gas and oil industry.
1
The Environmental Protection Agency is a complete joke. This department needs to be gutted completely or just shut down.
The Environmental Protection Agency is owned by the fossil fuel industry. To even have that title is absurd.
Donald Trump is 73 years old. McConnell is 77. Etc. You think they care about the future? The full brunt of fallout from these policies, permanently damaging the earth, will be endured by our children and their children's children. Not these old Republican men. Their only priority is to secure more power and money for their smooth ride off into the sunset in a few years. If you have children you should be very, very concerned. If you are a Trump supporter with children you should be absolutely ashamed.
5
Trump is an existential threat. Why aren't there massive protests in America?
3
The evangelicals who support Donald are banking on their god looking out for them, welcoming them to paradise when the world ends, or selectively protecting them to reward their regular church attendance. No need to worry about earthly concerns, silly. The laws of science are no match for their supernatural guardian.
5
@ARNP
And there you have it.
1
Perhaps if you wish to prevent Trump’s re-election, you should keep your slogans fairly simple, something like:
“Trump’s Environmental Exploitation Agency is destroying your grandchildren’s future. Even Exon agrees”
4
Yet another example of Republicans destroying the planet for short term profits. They are literally destroying their children's future, but couldn't care less, as long as they get the money now.
3
The epitaph read “Oh dear me, these activities were alarming and outside the norms of behavior”.
There's a 7 hour CNN Presidential town hall on the climate next Wednesday:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/27/politics/cnn-climate-crisis-town-hall-democrats/index.html
Then on September 19-20 MSNBC is also holding a climate forum:
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/msnbc-to-cohost-climate-forum-with-2020-presidential-candidates-64589381685
So what is the difference between a debate and a forum? A forum focuses more on exploring options and less on pointless squabbling.
3
Forget about a progressive agenda, the first order of business will be to restore order. Think President ServPro...like it never happened!
2
Clearly, it seems increased pollution is already having an affect on what little brain this President has left. When, during the G7 meetings he gave the excuse that he couldn't attend the leaders meeting on climate change and the issue of fires in the Amazon because he was having other important meetings with the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and the PM of India, it seems he was unaware that both of these leaders were attending the meeting he insisted on missing.
4
Given their (big business & co.) agenda, the Environmental ‘Protection’ Agency is a wholly inadequate name. It might as well be called the EDA: Environmental Destruction Agency.
3
In the presidential debates, moderators please o please ask specific questions of President Trump.
Why did you approve of insecticides that cause brain damage?
Why did you change the rules for profit colleges so that they can offer nothing in the way of a useful education?
Why did you say the tax cut would be for the middle class when in fact it was for the top 1%?
Why did you prohibit the use of the terminology climate change?
I do not want gotcha questions but questions that bring to light the actions of this administration.
3
In the not to distant future climate criminals guilty of crimes against humanity and resultant mass deaths will be either hiding from Justice or in prison.
1
I think the big oil companies want the rules to stay the same to put the smaller ones out of business. The big companies have the money to withstand the rules. Then of course passing the cost increase to the consumer. Big oil isn’t about protecting environment. It is all about money.
Also I am told that CO2 and climate change will destroy the rain forests. The people of Brasil are burning the rainforest down to make room for farms and ranches. Kind of stupid to cut down on CO2 if we are cutting down the trees we are supposed to be saving.
2
Trump and his minions share one thought - the one who dies with the most money wins - and they know that the permanent destruction of so much of what makes the world livable for billions will be here long enough that they won't experience the worst of it - most of them will be dead within 20 years. But for heavens sake - our children and grandchildren will NOT be dead yet. Does Trump really hate the young, including his own family, so much?
1
I guess the "P" in EPA no longer stands for "protection."
3
Astounding. To appease some small fry producers Trump has kneecapped the organization which is supposed to protect the environment. Some see it as another attempt to spite Obama but this time I suspect he’s set Nixon spinning in his grave.
2
Does the E.P.A. have an inspector general?
How can the agency whose mission is to protect the environment for the American people get away with doing the exact opposite?
Where are the government watchdogs?
1
@L
All the scientists have left. There’s no one left with a brain.
This roll back of rules regarding methane gas containment for oil and gas companies will save them a few million dollars a year and create the equivalent pollution of over a million passenger cars running continuously for one year. Where is the concern for air quality and the health of the American people? Not with this President and the Republican Party. Turning our back on man made climate issues will not make them go away. It will make them worse. Vote for someone who believes in science and values the planet.
2
Trump's fragile ego is so concerned about his reputation and legacy. What he doesn't realize it that history will not remember him well. Having his name become synonymous with moral bankruptcy probably wasn't what he had hoped for.
2
I feel like I'm in an ecological nightmare where whether because of ignorance, greed, lust for power or all of it, the most powerful nation on the planet is ignoring science and reality. Respected publications like Scientific American headlines its latest issue with, "Truth Lies & Uncertainty," focusing on the blatant denial of reality by many nations but most dangerously by the United States. We have gone from Earth's advocate to its worst nightmare.
4
Nixon’s crimes paled compared to this.
Although so much is troubling about him, Trump’s most impactful legacy will be cartoon-evil setbacks on climate change.
If he gets another term, America will lose virtually all international credibility and for the climate, it will be too late.
So nothing at stake next November. #votehimout
8
As others have said before, the cruelty is the point.
5
The Federal government should refuse to do the president’s bidding. This would obviously set a precedent but a precedent that needs to be set. These kinds of deleterious policy acts should not be tolerated. This is not America. At this point, to be against President Trump is to be an American.
5
In addition to being illegal, that would set a precedent that could haunt the next Democratic President. Like it or not, Trump is the legally elected President. For now, at least.
The real lesson here, which has been hammered home several times in the Trump administration, is this: if you rely on executive action, instead of laws, to further your agenda (Obama), it can ALL be undone by the next administration.
@randomxyz
This type of doctrinaire policy behavior should be disallowed as dangerous to the nation and its citizens.
This is crazy. The whole world will pay for the increased profits of a few.
3
What will be the breaking point for the American people regarding Trump? How much more destruction are they willing to take?
The entire EPA has been suspect for decades.
4
Trump is destroying
1. climate
2. health care
3. social services
4. human rights
5. THE ECONOMY
When will the MAGA-head "base" wake up and understand that their lives are being thrown under the bus by this infantile megalomaniac who only wants to bamboozle them until after the 2020 election. After that he will really go to town with craziness we can only imagine.
7
How can it still be called the Environmental "Protection" Agency?
2
This is a crime, not a policy. The people responsible should be jailed.
8
Mr. Trump, who are you trying to please with these rollbacks? Do you own oil wells?
Does one of your properties sit on an untapped pocket of natural gas?
Or, are there people out there, wealthy people, who would benefit from these relaxed regulations?
Are they the ones who contributed to your campaign?
And, are they the ones you need to fund your reelection?
Just let us know. Cause right now, we have no idea where you're coming from, or where you're going.
Some would say it's backwards!
2
This was done for pure hate and "getting even"with those Trump does not like. Have we had such a destructive and shallow and childish person in government before? What do we do about this one?
1
It's good to see news affecting the climate crisis front and center in the New York Times rather than relegated to the climate forward section. Would like to see constant attention to the urgency of implementing solutions while there is still time.
4
So activist Greta Thunberg arrives in NYC and, among other things, urges DJT to read up on the science so he can act (mitigate the climate crisis) -- and the next day he does the opposite.
Yeah, that's about par for the course.
DJT is also on course for being the person most responsible for the climate crisis overtaking humanity, though the Koch brothers are still beating him and Bolsonaro is a worthy competitor.
I used to worry about dying prematurely because of untreated illness, thanks to the US govt's regressive stance on healthcare; now it's clear that something far more apocalyptic is going to take me out, along with millions -- maybe hundreds of millions -- of others.
These days, whenever I'm in public, I look around and wonder, "Did you vote for him? Did *you*?" I feel antipathy because so many unthinking and/or selfish + malignant people have put us in this predicament.
5
It's really not surprising that major companies are thumbing their nose at the pathetic Trump attempts to dismantle anything that Obama supported. After all, these companies look at the long term and they know that within two years a lucid administration will be in power that will, hopefully, enact or re-enact, sensible environmental laws.
3
Trashing Scene .... I always thought this scene from Citizen Kane sums up our president's approach to our country.
https://youtu.be/kFT083GhycM
This should be considered an international crime. America’s assault on the global environment is not an issue simply relevant to the US. American leadership should be dragged in front of a panel of judges in The Hague and charged with ecocide!
2
Campaign slogan for Trump and the GOP in 2020:
Making America and the Earth More Unhealthy--Again!
Embroider that on your little red baseball caps Trump fans!
Don't worry, the GOP big donors have an agenda that they are going to get Trump and the Republican Party to ram through as fast as possible. I suspect they know their days in office are numbered, and they have only a window of opportunity to get their destructive agenda accomplished.
I think they know full well that it is very easy to plunder and destroy for monetary gain for a few, and that it will be so much for difficult for others to clean up their mess.
But, don't these mass destructors of the planet realize they need clean air and water for themselves and their grandchildren to breathe and survive? Obviously not, and clearly big money talks when it comes to not protecting but destroying the environment for future generations and living things.
As a people, we have little chance in the United States until we get the legalized bribery out of politics, and end Citizens United and our secretive campaign finance laws. The only way I can see to level the playing field, at least somewhat, is to have public financing of elections--but neither the politicians nor the media want that. There is just so much money to be made with our "system."
Let the future take care of itself; God will protect. And no planning allowed. That is called "socialism."
So Exxon doesn't want this brilliant plan. And the auto makers don't want dual product lines of Trump emission vehicles and Obama emission vehicles.
And farmers are starting realize that once that trade is gone, they may not be able get it back. Meanwhole, Trump is hard at work sinking the ecomony, but not until after the holidays.
Besides Sean Hannity, Alex Jones and Vladmir Putin, who still thinks Trump is making America great?
4
If anyone wondered if they were trying to kill us, wonder no more.
2
It's easy to see why Trump is raising unprecedented amounts of money for his 2020 reelection. He's working for the oil and gas industries.
It's past time to impeach and remove this corrupt charlatan.
3
Trump is not only a narcissist but a masochist. He can't stop doing such activities that cause pain and chaos in the society. And he loves it.
He is mental and he is the president of the United States, most influential country in the world.
I say his words and deeds emboldened Jair Bolsonaro and now Boris Johnson for their hideous acts of late.
2
If it's bad for the environment, bad for Americans, bad for the world and bad for humanity, Trump is doing it. Make America Gag Again
2
I wonder who's paying for this one?
Might as well put a cuckoo clock in the Oval Office along with a Magic-8 ball, which will do as good a job as its current occupant.
2
What is wrong with these numbskulls? They can’t buy a private planet, so they’re forced to live and breathe along with us on planet Earth. I guess Trump and his cronies think they should just continue plundering the planet until the whole thing collapses. Yet another reason to dump Trump and all Republicans in 2020.
3
It has become more than rational policy changes, It is a deliberate almost satanic attempt to defile the planet and ignore global warming, Trump skips the climate change meeting at G7., Lead shot now allowed, land protecting endangered species opened, reducing mpg requirements on future cars, FDA regs dropped or reduced, on and on,
2020. vote as if your lives depended on it....they do!
3