If you thought the Trump administration would stop short of openly making America’s kids sick to cater to the fossil fuel industry, think again.
Trump and EPA head Scott Pruitt have long promised to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), both by crippling its budget and slashing key programs to protect clean air and water. With every step they take towards actually achieving this, the consequences become increasingly clear.
But this hijacking of an agency founded to “protect human health and the environment” isn’t coming out of nowhere. It’s the result of a corporate takeover years in the making.
The assault we’re witnessing on clear air and water started long before Trump took office.
As Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt spent years suing the EPA and wrecking Oklahoma’s public health safeguards to benefit the fracking industry. As fracking-related earthquakes increased in both frequency and intensity across the state, Pruitt was caught secretly colluding with industry insiders to stifle investigations.
Now, Trump has given Pruitt a platform to unravel the EPA from the inside — and it’s his same fossil fuel industry buddies who stand to gain.
Oil and gas industry lobbyists enjoy unprecedented access to the White House and key agencies like the EPA right now, and the results speak for themselves. Whereas Trump has largely failed at advancing key pieces of his agenda — Trumpcare is stalled in the Senate, his Muslim immigration ban is stalled in the courts, his border wall is stalled in being a terrible and unexecutable idea — he and his administration of climate deniers have been much more successful at gutting environmental regulations.
From the Paris Agreement to the Clean Water Act, Trump and Pruitt are working to dismantle some of the most important lines of defense between a healthy environment and the fossil fuel industry.
That sounds bad enough, but it could get much worse.
Already on a roll, Trump and Pruitt seem to be getting bolder. Now they’re trying to block a rule that would regulate methane emissions from oil and gas companies, which the EPA admits could disproportionately harm children.
Their proposal would delay an Obama-era methane rule for an additional two years, during which time more kids would be exposed to more sickening methane, asthma-inducing smog, and benzene (a known carcinogen). On top of that, methane is a potent greenhouse gas, nearly 100 times as powerful as carbon dioxide at fueling climate change over a 20-year period.
At an EPA hearing earlier today, kids, teens, and parents turned out to testify to the impact of methane emissions on their health and communities.
Babies, older kids testifying to #cutmethane today. Teen just told @epagov: "I've been exposed to benzene from fracking. It makes me sick." pic.twitter.com/hfx9M2KuyX
— IPL (DC.MD.NoVA) (@IPLdmv) July 10, 2017
"The oil trucks drive really fast, they hit my cats." – kids at @EPA #cutmethane hearing today. We need this rule to protect their futures. pic.twitter.com/eZ8R9I2nAd
— SJCAlliance (@SJCAlliance) July 10, 2017
"I'm concerned for the health & safety of my kids & their 3,200 classmates who attend school half a mile from a gas well pad." #cutmethane
— Moms Clean Air Force (@CleanAirMoms) July 10, 2017
It’s time put our children’s health before fossil fuel profits.
Like most of the decisions Pruitt has made since taking over the EPA, it’s clear that delaying this rule only benefits the fossil fuel industry.
Scott Pruitt's EPA listens to industry. We think he should listen to these kids asking for clean air. ACT: https://t.co/Nmn1A0FA9g pic.twitter.com/zHhHr6cHQe
— Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) July 10, 2017
The agency is taking public comments right now about this rule, and it’s up to all of us to speak up for clean air, clean water, and public health. Send a message to the EPA today telling them to stop selling out our children’s future to protect the fossil fuel industry!