The EPA continues to work against its own name as an Environmental Protection Agency, by doing things that categorically do not protect the environment.
Under Obama there were many new rules that improved the Environmental standards in the USA. One of these was a substantial reduction in the amount of mercury other chemicals hazardous to human health.
What is stupid about this move is that the coal power plants have spent billions of pounds across the country putting in these contractions to remove the Mercury and other hazardous materials on their smokestacks.
The money has been spent and the work has been done – who precisely does this benefit? As if to underline this question, two months ago the utilities in America came out publicly and stated they were against the rollback of mercury emission standards in the USA.
The unions, business groups and electric power plants are all against this move. In their wording they are removing the requirement to be appropriate and necessary for the government to regulate harmful chemicals.
It really is getting to the point where the EPA must be renamed, as it no longer has anything to do with protecting the environment and seemed merely to be there to make business easier.
Americans should be furious about this as Donald Trump has once again come out and said quite clearly he doesn’t care about the health of the people of the country he runs. Given that these pollutants generally hit the less well off harder than the wealthy, as with many of Trumps policies, they may be liked by his supporters but will hurt them in the long run.