Trump-Era EPA: Pollution Rules and Research Staff to Be Cut

Trump's EPA Under Scrutiny for Rollback of Environmental Rules and Redundancies

The Trump administration has tried to eliminate dozens of environmental rules, a move that has faced intense criticism for the long-term damage to public health and the environment. Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been trying to roll back vital safeguards for air and water quality that have potentially disastrous impacts on the environment and human health. Regulations under review for repeal address mercury pollution, clean water and auto and power plant emissions. The EPA also unveiled proposals erasing the landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are a public health menace, a move that is the epicenter of climate change policy.

Scrapping these regulations, environmentalists say, will have catastrophic effects. The rollbacks could cost as much as 200,000 American lives over the next 25 years by exacerbating pollution-driven cardiovascular, respiratory, and other diseases. While the Trump administration has justified the move as saving regulatory costs on American families, analyses show that such environmental protection benefits are many times larger than the cost. As a matter of fact, for each dollar of every year spent on preventing pollution, the regulations prevent six dollars from being lost by the economy.

The EPA also plans to lay off over 1,000 employees, including scientists, chemists, biologists, and toxicologists. For instance, these 75%-off agency research workers are only one aspect of a large round of budget cuts, which critics argue will make it harder for the EPA to safeguard public health and the environment. The reductions have been marketed as streamlining the federal government to lean and mean, but they have been perceived by many as gutting the agency's purpose.

The EPA's strategy to decrease the number of environmental regulations and the number of workers has raised concern regarding the agency's capacity to deal with issues in public health and preserve the state of the environment in the coming few years. Although the administration maintains the plan will save costs and cut unnecessary government intervention, long-term risks to human health and the environment are the subject of great controversy.

Conclusion:

With the Trump administration moving forward with the rollbacks, the future of America in environmental protection is uncertain. The targeted regulations not only improved air and water quality but also reaped huge health benefits for Americans. Reducing the research staff of the EPA further cripples the agency's capability to achieve its mission. As the public health threats grow, it remains to be seen how the administration is going to balance the need for deregulation against environmental and public health safety.

Source: The Guardian, AFP