In a column published yesterday titled ‘Making Polluting Legal Again’ Dan Rather wrote: ‘The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seems to have undergone an overnight rebrand, one that looks as if it were written and directed by the oil and gas industry.’
Given that the new Administrator of the EPA this week boasted that he was ‘driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion’ there is some indication that this is the case.
Last Friday the US Department of Justice announced that they were dropping the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) legal action again the Denka chemical plant in Louisiana.
The Biden-era EPA under Michael Regan had filed a complaint to compel Denka to significantly reduce chloroprene emissions from its neoprene manufacturing plant in LaPlace, an area known locally as ‘Cancer alley’.
Since the plant first opened in 1964 residents of the nearby St John the Baptist Parish have felt it has seriously impacted their health, with disproportionate levels of cancer and people finding that breathing problems improved when they left the area.
According to the complaint, air monitoring consistently shows long-term chloroprene concentrations in the air near the plant up to 14 times the level recommended for a 70-year lifetime of exposure.
The Trump-era EPA took issue with the fact that the case had been framed in terms of ‘environmental justice’, the sort of concept that Trump promised to eradicate from day one.
A press release from the US Department of Justice last week stated: ‘The prior administration framed the case as part of its “ongoing effort to advance environmental justice in overburdened communities.” The Biden Administration EPA used its EJScreen* tool to define such areas partly by the percentage of “people of color” present — a clear example of the racial preferencing now prohibited by President Trump’s executive order.’
Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) said: ‘Today’s dismissal reflects ENRD’s renewed commitment to enforce environmental laws as Congress intended — consistently, fairly and without regard to race.’
On Wednesday however, new EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin went into overdrive as he announced a swathe of deregulation, barely any of which could be viewed as positive for the environment he’s nominally supposed to be protecting. Indeed the first seven actions he is committing to take were grouped under the heading ‘Unleashing American Energy’.
Announcing the measures, Zeldin said: ‘Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more.
‘Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission.’
*EJScreen is the environmental justice screening and mapping tool that highlights places that may have higher environmental burdens and vulnerable populations.)