Biden must undo Trump’s environmental damage
Upon awakening one recent morning, I spotted two bald eagles. The female was in an osprey nest, perching with its mate.
As I raisedmy binoculars, I saw the male chasing a competitor down the creek like a jet fighter. There also were plucky ruddy ducks and buffleheads diving for breakfast around our pier. My excitement at these sightings is magnified during the coronavirus lockdown.
Then a great sadness set in as I realized howthese critters, many other species, and our natural world are threatened by President Donald Trump’s destructive scorched earth policies. This administration has pushed for repealing, delaying, or emaciating 125 environmental laws and regulations with potentially 50 more coming before Jan. 20.
Core environmental laws enacted decades ago underRepublican presidents are included. Here are but a few transgressions against nature and public health:
The bald eagle, once listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, recovered and was de-listed. Now, the act is being gutted with changes being rushed through before InaugurationDay.
The act’s protection was removed for gray wolves, opening wanton killing. Listing of the iconic wolverine was blocked. A federal ban was lifted on bating and killing hibernating grizzly bears and their cubs on Alaskan federal preserves. Headlamps to aid slaughter of denned motherwolves and their pupswere allowed as was shooting wolves and bears from planes and snowmobiles;
Bans on importing trophy hunted endangered species-listed black rhinos and elephants, lions, and leopards were lifted even as we are in the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction, a catastrophic biodiversity crisis.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act provides protection for birds like bald eagles, peregrine falcons, ruddy ducks, robins, and cardinals and more than 1,000 other species, 500in theUnited States. Enacted in 1918 to stop the slaughter of exploited birds, it is among the oldest wildlife protection laws.
A few days after a presidential turkey pardoning for Thanksgiving, gutting the Migratory Bird act moved forward. The killing of tens of millions of birds including eagles by oil spills, collisions with communication towers, electrocutions on power lines, and by pesticides could no longer be prosecuted.
This reverses 102 years of strict protections under the act. It will stop successful prosecutions of oil companies like the BP guilty plea for killing102,000birds across93 species in the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
A regulation to exclude 45 million acres of freshwater wetlands and streams from CleanWaterAct protections is being rushed through, opening up a majority ofwetlands and 18% of our streams to draining, development, and agricultural operations. This would affect drinking water, wildlife, and flood control. Much of the Prairie Potholes could be destroyed with cata
strophic effects on breeding ruddy ducks and otherwaterfowl.
The bedrock National Environmental Policy Act is being weakened to accelerate federal approvals of pipelines, highway construction, and other major projects that pose environmental threats.
Chlorpyrifos, a widely used insecticide nerve agent related to sarin nerve gas, can impair children’s brains and affect IQ, memory, and motor development. It is a known bird killer. An EPA biological evaluation found that chlorpyrifos is “likely to adversely affect” 97% of all threatened and endangered wildlife, including 100 avian species.
After six years of reviews, an EPA scientific panel called for a ban subsequently imposed under President Barack Obama. The ban was reversed under Trump.
Regulations were changed to allowmore mercury and other toxic chemicals to be discharged into our air and water from coal-fired power plants. Requirements for storage of toxic coal fly ashwere eased.
Just last week, tighter regulation of particulate matter was rejected. These substances lodge in our lungs causing lethal outcomes in respiratory illnesses, including COVID 19. EPA scientists recommended lowering particulates to save 9,050 to 34,600 lives a year.
Thiswas another gift to the coal industry from EPA Administrator Scott Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist;
Expedited plans are underway to open the pristineArcticNationalWildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas extraction with pre-drilling seismic surveys. Polar bears, muskox, wolves and other Arctic critters will be affected in this true wilderness I have visited.
Attempts to kill the Chespeake Bay Programby defunding itwere thwarted but EPA refused to enforce Clean Water Act pollution limits on recalcitrant states and declared mandatory pollution reductions aspirational, not binding.
Attorneys General of 17 states and many environmental groups have been suing to block these destructive measures with a high rate of success. But many have gone into effect including a reversal of the ban on plasticwater bottles inNational Parks.
These are but a few of the awful assaults on our natural heritage and public health that conservationists are depending on President-elect Joe Biden to reverse.
I am one of those counting on him to undo these crimes against nature.