Latest news with #E.P.A
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Admin Plans to Delay, Eliminate Limits on ‘Forever Chemicals' in U.S. Drinking Water
The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it plans to eliminate and postpone rules aimed at reducing 'forever chemicals' contaminating drinking water across the country. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A), exposure to PFAS — a class of highly toxic, long-lasting compounds also known as 'forever chemicals' — has been linked to cancer, decreased fertility in women, developmental effects in children, immune system issues, interference with the body's natural hormones, and more. At least 45 percent of America's tap water is estimated to have one or more types of PFAS. Last year, former President Joe Biden set first-ever limits on PFAS, requiring water utilities to begin bringing down contamination levels of six types of PFAS chemicals — while setting a strict limit of four parts per trillion for two of those chemicals, PFOA and PFOS. Despite the plethora of research warning against the dangers of forever chemicals in water, the E.P.A. said that while it will uphold the limits for those two types of PFAS, it will extend a deadline requiring water utilities to meet those limits to 2031. The E.P.A. also said it plans to eliminate and reconsider the limits for the other four chemicals — PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and PFBS — listed.'We are on a path to uphold the agency's nationwide standards to protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their water,' Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, said in a statement. 'At the same time, we will work to provide common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance. This will support water systems across the country, including small systems in rural communities, as they work to address these contaminants.' President Donald Trump and his allies have escalated attacks on clean water protections. Through E.P.A. deregulations and cuts, Supreme Court rulings, executive orders, and bills in Congress, Trump and conservatives are systematically eroding rules aimed at providing Americans with clean, healthy water. In March, Zeldin said he would look to significantly reduce a significant portion of the waterways, such as wetlands, rivers, and streams, that are protected under the Clean Water Act, a 1972 law that regulates the discharge of pollutants in water. Trump's Office of Management and Budget separately withdrew a proposed EPA rule in January to set limits on the discharge of forever chemicals in wastewater. The president's administration did so based on Trump's executive order on Day One freezing all regulations in progress pending review. 'This agenda to deregulate, this agenda to gut the federal government, to dismantle the federal government, eliminate core functions of our government, remove these protections, it's just an ideology,' Mary Grant, Public Water for All Campaign Director at the nonprofit Food and Water Watch, previously told Rolling Stone. 'And they're acting on it without without care for how it impacts people, for how it impacts our access to safe water.' More from Rolling Stone 10 Terrible Policies in Trump and the GOP's Bill to Cut Taxes for the Rich Robert De Niro Drags Trump, Calls Art 'Threat to Autocrats' in Cannes Speech Trump's ICE Used a Woman's Kids and Grandchild as 'Bait' to Arrest Her Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Health
- New York Times
More Babies, but Little Support for Them?
To the Editor: Re 'Would $5,000 Bonuses Spur New Baby Boom?' and 'E.P.A. Poised to Cancel Grants to Study Dangers to Children' (front page, April 22): What an extraordinary juxtaposition of articles on the front page! On the one hand, President Trump wants to encourage larger families ('I want a baby boom'), including a proposal to give $5,000 cash bonuses to mothers of newborns (child support that in itself would be supported by Democrats like me). On the other hand, in the adjacent article we learn that the administration is set to cancel tens of millions of dollars in grants to scientists studying environmental hazards faced by children in America, especially in poor and rural areas, such as pesticides, poor air quality and 'forever chemicals.' Mr. Trump's hypocrisy is clear. While wanting to increase the number of children being born, he cuts programs to protect their health before and after birth. John Mason Santa Rosa, Calif. To the Editor: 'Would $5,000 Bonuses Spur New Baby Boom?' describes several incentives the White House is considering implementing to increase U.S. birthrates, including monetary compensation and medals for women who give birth. These incentives will fail because they focus on rewarding individual women rather than on improving broader economic, social and political factors.
New York Times
14-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Expelled From the Navy: 381 Banned Books
Measles Vaccines Work Slashing the E.P.A. A Cost to Farmers Leaders, Rise Up Image Credit... AP Photo/Patrick Semansky To the Editor: Re 'Angelou's 'Caged Bird' Is Out, but Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' Stays; 381 Books Are Banned From Naval Academy' (front page, April 12): My grandfather was Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz. The United States Naval Academy's library was named in his honor in 1973. My family was proud to attend the dedication. He would be appalled by the removal of books by authors like Maya Angelou from its shelves — as am I and are his great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. He was a humble, honorable, intelligent and supportive leader who was honored and loved by everyone he came into contact with. We are all ashamed to hear that books such as 'Mein Kampf' have been left on the shelves while others were removed. Thank you to The New York Times for featuring this story! Sarah Nimitz Smith Boston To the Editor: Kudos to The Times for reporting that the U.S. Naval Academy has banned and removed 381 books from its library, clearly demonstrating ideological censorship in promotion of the Trump administration's assault on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. One of the first steps a totalitarian regime takes is to control what citizens may read and what information is available to them from print and electronic media. State control of information is nothing more than propaganda. Should George Orwell's novel '1984' be renamed '2025'? Robert D. Greenberg Bethesda, Md. To the Editor: If President Trump's censorship team did not sweep up Ray Bradbury's novel 'Fahrenheit 451' when it raided the Naval Academy's library (it apparently did not), it had better get back there before some innocent academy student finds the book and learns how censorship, book banning and book burning poison democracy and freedom. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
13-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
The E.P.A. Shifts Its Mission
In a barrage of pronouncements on Wednesday the Trump administration said it would repeal dozens of the nation's most significant environmental regulations, including limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, protections for wetlands, and the legal basis that allows it to regulate the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. (Read the full article.) But beyond that, Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, reframed the purpose of the E.P.A. In a two-minute-and-18-second video posted to X, Zeldin boasted about the changes and said his agency's mission is to 'lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business.' Nowhere in the video did he refer to protecting the environment or public health, twin tenets that have guided the agency since its founding in 1970. The E.P.A. has 'no obligation to promote agriculture or commerce; only the critical obligation to protect and enhance the environment,' the first administrator, William D. Ruckelshaus, said as he explained its mission to the country weeks after the E.P.A. was created by President Richard M. Nixon. He said the agency would be focused on research, standards and enforcement in five areas: air pollution, water pollution, waste disposal, radiation and pesticides. Perhaps the most significant of the agency's regulatory changes is an effort to revise a 2009 legal opinion known as the E.P.A. 'endangerment finding,' which concluded that rising greenhouse gas emissions are a danger to public health. The finding gives the agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Eliminating it would make it virtually impossible for the E.P.A. to curb climate pollution from automobiles, factories, power plants or oil and gas wells. Some of the other significant policy changes Zeldin said he planned include: Read the full article. Read more E.P.A. coverage: Birds face weakened protections under Trump move In a reprise of the first Trump administration, migratory birds are again facing weakened protections under federal law. The issue at hand: Should companies be held responsible if birds are killed accidentally, for example in oil spills or waste pits? The answer has ping-ponged back and forth in recent years under different interpretations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, one of the nation's oldest environmental laws. Now, as part of a sweeping suspension of legal opinions made by the Interior Department under President Biden, the Trump administration is again prioritizing energy companies and other industries that do not want to be penalized when birds die accidentally because of their actions. — Catrin Einhorn and Lisa Friedman Read the full article. Correction: The Tuesday newsletter misstated the size of the grant that Landforce, a nonprofit group, received from the E.P.A based on information from the agency's website. It was awarded $15 million, not $14 million Thanks for being a subscriber. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Browse all of our subscriber-only newsletters here. And follow The New York Times on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and TikTok at @nytimes. Reach us at climateforward@ We read every message, and reply to many!
New York Times
12-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
E.P.A. Declares ‘Greatest Day of Deregulation Our Nation Has Seen'
In a barrage of pronouncements on Wednesday the Trump administration said it would repeal dozens of the nation's most significant environmental regulations, including limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, protections for wetlands, and the legal basis that allows it to regulate the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. But beyond that, Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, reframed the purpose of the E.P.A. In a two-minute-and-18-second video posted to X, Mr. Zeldin boasted about the changes and said his agency's mission is to 'lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business.' 'From the campaign trail to Day 1 and beyond, President Trump has delivered on his promise to unleash energy dominance and lower the cost of living,' Mr. Zeldin said. 'We at E.P.A. will do our part to power the great American comeback.' Nowhere in the video did he refer to protecting the environment or public health, twin tenets that have guided the agency since its founding in 1970. The E.P.A. has 'no obligation to promote agriculture or commerce; only the critical obligation to protect and enhance the environment,' the first administrator, William D. Ruckelshaus, said as he explained its mission to the country weeks after the E.P.A. was created by President Richard M. Nixon. He said the agency would be focused on research, standards and enforcement in five areas: air pollution, water pollution, waste disposal, radiation and pesticides. Mr. Zeldin said the E.P.A. would unwind more than two dozen protections against air and water pollution. It would overturn limits on soot from smokestacks that have been linked to respiratory problems in humans and premature deaths as well as restrictions on emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin. It would get rid of the 'good neighbor rule' that requires states to address their own pollution when it's carried by winds into neighboring states. And it would eliminate enforcement efforts that prioritize the protection of poor and minority communities. In addition, when the agency creates environmental policy, it would no longer consider the costs to society from wildfires, droughts, storms and other disasters that might be made worse by pollution connected to that policy, Mr. Zeldin said. In perhaps its most consequential act, the agency said it would work to erase the E.P.A.'s legal authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by reconsidering decades of science that show global warming is endangering humanity. In his video, Mr. Zeldin derisively referred to that legal underpinning as 'the holy grail of the climate change religion.' Mr. Zeldin called Wednesday's actions 'the largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history.' He added, 'today the green new scam ends, as the E.P.A. does its part to usher in a golden age of American success.' The announcements do not carry the force of law. In almost every case, the E.P.A. would have to undergo a lengthy process of public comment and develop environmental and economic justifications for the change. President Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, campaigned on a promise to 'drill, baby, drill' and ease regulations on fossil fuel companies. Since returning to the White House, he has degraded the government's capacity to fight global warming by freezing funds for climate programs authorized by Congress, firing scientists working on weather and climate forecasts, and cutting federal support for the transition away from fossil fuels. The United States is the world's largest historic emitter of carbon dioxide, a planet-warming greenhouse gas that scientists agree is driving climate change and intensifying hurricanes, floods, wildfires and droughts, as well as species extinction. Last year was the hottest in recorded history, and the United States experienced 27 disasters that each cost at least $1 billion, compared to three in 1980. Democrats and environmental activists decried Mr. Zeldin's moves and accused him of abandoning the E.P.A.'s responsibility to protect human health and the environment. 'Today is the day Trump's Big Oil megadonors paid for,' Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, said. He called the E.P.A. moves a series of attacks on clean air, clean water and affordable energy. 'Administrator Zeldin clearly lied when he told us that he would respect the science and listen to the experts,' Mr. Whitehouse said, referring to Mr. Zeldin's confirmation hearing. Gina McCarthy, who served as E.P.A. administrator in the Obama administration said it was 'the most disastrous day in EPA history. Rolling these rules back is not just a disgrace, it's a threat to all of us. The agency has fully abdicated its mission to protect Americans' health and well being.' Jackie Wong, senior vice president for climate change and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said repealing or weakening regulations on automobiles, power plants and more would lead to increases in asthma, heart attacks and other health problems. 'At a time when millions of Americans are trying to rebuild after horrific wildfires and climate-fueled hurricanes, it's nonsensical to try to deny that climate change harms our health and welfare,' said Ms. Wong, whose organization successfully sued the first Trump administration repeatedly over environmental rollbacks. The Trump administration had been signaling for months that it would reverse many of the climate regulations enacted during the Biden administration. But the cascade of announcements, timed with an op-ed by Mr. Zeldin in The Wall Street Journal and the online video, was designed to attract attention the day before he is expected to address the oil and gas industry at an annual gathering in Houston. . By midafternoon, the agency had counted 31 pronouncements that were designed, Mr. Zeldin said, to 'unleash American energy.' The top lobbying groups for the automobile, oil, gas and chemical industries, among others, applauded Mr. Zeldin's plans. Anne Bradbury, the chief executive of the American Exploration & Production Council, a lobbying group representing oil and gas companies, called the announcements 'common sense.' John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the auto lobby, said the changes would keep the industry 'globally competitive.' Marty Durbin, a senior vice president at the United States Chamber of Commerce said, 'American businesses were crippled with an unprecedented regulatory onslaught during the previous Administration that contributed to higher costs felt by families around the country.' He said 'The Chamber supports a more balanced regulatory approach that will protect the environment and support greater economic growth.' Groups that deny the established science of climate change also cheered Mr. Zeldin's actions. 'The Biden E.P.A. ignored the will of Congress, infringed on individual freedom, trampled on property rights and tried to force the country to use unreliable sources of electricity, such as wind and solar,' said Daren Bakst, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank that promotes climate denial, in a statement. Some of the most significant policy changes Mr. Zeldin said he planned include: Perhaps the most significant move, though, is an effort to revise a 2009 legal opinion known as the E.P.A. 'endangerment finding' which concluded that rising greenhouse gas emissions are a danger to public health. The finding gives the agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Eliminating it would make it virtually impossible for the E.P.A. to curb climate pollution from automobiles, factories, power plants or oil and gas wells. Reversing the rule has long been the white whale for climate deniers. But doing so would require Mr. Trump's E.P.A. to make and substantiate the argument that greenhouse gas emissions pose no foreseeable threats to public health, when decades of science says otherwise. Jonathan H. Adler, a conservative legal expert and professor of environmental law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said he did not believe the Trump administration would succeed. 'You've got to explain away decades of statements by every administration that there are negative consequences of climate change that can be reasonably anticipated,' Mr. Adler said. He called the effort to unravel the endangerment finding 'a good way to waste years of time and effort and accomplish nothing.'
