Saturday, April 22, 2017

Without Batting an Eye



Which is why...
[President Trump's proposed budget for Fiscal 2018] calls for a 12 percent, or $1.5 billion, decrease in the Interior Department's budget [which includes the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Reclamation].

[...]

These cuts will impact economies of local communities and businesses as parks will be forced to close facilities and shorten visitor seasons," said a statement released by the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks.

  National Parks Traveler
And why...
While chaos has been the operative word as the Trump era begins, underlying the disarray a deliberate attack on rivers, clean water, and the environment is well underway.

[...]

The Trump administration just proposed its first federal budget with draconian cuts to EPA’s budget of 31 percent.

[...]

In one of its first actions, the new Congress passed a bill using the, until now, rarely invoked Congressional Review Act to overturn the Interior Department’s Stream Protection Rule.

The Stream Protection Rule, eight years in the making, required coal companies engaged in underground or surface mining, including environmentally destructive mountaintop removal mining, to avoid damaging streams, monitor the impacts of their mining activities on streams, and restore streams that are damaged. At the behest of the coal industry, Congress overturned the rule and President Trump signed the bill into law, falsely claiming it would save thousands of jobs in the coal industry.

[...]

The week after killing the Stream Protection Rule, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rescind the Clean Water Rule.

[...]

Of course, one of the most revealing and disturbing actions by President Trump is his appointment of Scott Pruitt to be EPA Administrator. As Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Pruitt sued EPA 14 times to overturn the Clean Water Rule, stop the cleanup of Chesapeake Bay, and block other EPA actions to protect our water and air. Because of Pruitt’s record opposing protection of the environment, American Rivers strongly opposed his nomination.

[...]

We also are seeing efforts in Congress to undermine the Endangered Species Act, one of our most important environmental laws.

  American Rivers
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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