Republicans weak on environment

Republicans in Congress seem strangely eager to let coal companies pollute streams without telling the public, to let oil and gas companies more easily bribe foreign officials and to let any company win federal contracts no matter how badly it has violated labour laws. They’re well on their way to getting all this done under the Congressional Review Act, a legislative cudgel that has rarely been used until now. The act lets Congress use fast-track procedures to pass “resolutions of disapproval” that, when signed by the president, nullify federal regulations issued in about the past six months of the previous presidential term.

The stream pollution and bribery measures are already on President Donald Trump’s desk and he’s expected to sign both within days. The goal of the interior department’s “stream protection rule” was to prohibit mining practices that permanently pollute streams, destroy drinking water sources and threaten forests. It requires coal companies to compile and provide information about contamination, so affected communities could take legal action against polluters under the Clean Water Act. The companies argued, against all evidence, that the rule would cost jobs. What it really would have done is subject them to fines for pollution that harms human health. The antibribery rule was called for in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2016. By requiring firms in extraction industries such as oil and gas to disclose payments to foreign governments it aimed to combat corruption. The US oil industry has said such disclosure would put it at a competitive disadvantage. That’s ridiculous. Many other countries have similar rules.

Trump won the presidency, in part, by promising to hold powerful interests accountable for practices that harm the public. But nullifying rules elevates corporate interests above all others. New York, February 10.