Clean air. Clean Water. It was nice while it lasted.

From the Washington Post today:
The Trump administration has instructed officials at the Environmental Protection Agency to freeze its grants and contracts, a move that could affect everything from state-led climate research to localized efforts to improve air and water quality to environmental justice projects aimed at helping poor communities.
Trump also imposed a gag order/media blackout at the EPA.

The EPA was formed in 1970, during the Nixon administration.  It has one mission:  To protect human health and the environment.

Trump's owners don't like the EPA.  The EPA interferes with things they want to do, like drilling for oil anyplace they damned well please, releasing toxic chemicals unfettered into the air, water, and ground, burning unlimited amounts of coal (and strip mining to get it),

But we have the EPA to thank for our relatively clean air and water.

We have a collectively short memory.  In 1969, the Cuyahoga River (and other industrial rivers in the US) regularly burst into flames.  There was zero life in the river -- not even the things like leeches and sludge worms that tend to survive a lot of pollution.

When's the last time you heard about a river in the US burning?

In 1989, acid rain was a huge problem in the US.  In 1990, the Clean Air Act was amended to allow the EPA to regulate sulfur dioxide emissions.

When's the last time you heard about acid rain being a problem in the US?

Kids used to get lead poisoning from all of us burning leaded gasoline in our cars.   The EPA required the elimination of lead in gasoline.  In the 1970's, 88% of kids had elevated levels of lead in their bloodstreams.  By 2006, the number had dropped to less than 1%.  (This is from the EPA's own information, per Gina McCarthy.)

Kids' lungs in Southern California are 10% bigger and stronger than they were 20 years ago, thanks to the fact that we've cut air pollution by 70% since 1970.

And by the way, since 1970, our GDP per capita (in chained 2009 dollars) has grown from $23,064 to $51,549.    So it's not like the EPA is some big drag on our national success.

Does the EPA make mistakes?  Yep.  Is our air quality like Beijing's, where people invest tens of thousands of dollars in air filtration systems in their homes?  Nope.

If you don't actively support the EPA, you should.  There is nothing good for average Americans in Donald Trump's actions against the EPA.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

More on Prop 8

Freedom?

The People's Business