EPA suspends enforcement of environmental laws

essentialsaltes said:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to meet environmental standards during the coronavirus outbreak.

The temporary policy, for which the EPA has set no end date, would allow any number of industries to skirt environmental laws, with the agency saying it will not “seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations.”

Regulated industries given a green light to pollute. Exempting them from monitoring and reporting obligations means we'll never know how much they broke the standards.

Click to expand...

The nutters who advise Trump appear to believe that god disapproves of ‘environmentalism’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

I'm not sure why we need this right now either?

essentialsaltes said:

Regulated industries given a green light to pollute.

Click to expand...

I can't believe that companies will use this to turn off their clean-up measures altogether. (They would have to re-activate them, when re-instated.)

My guess is that the EPA just won't be monitoring their margins so closely, for the time being. (And I suspect that civil liability will still constrain them to some extent.)

The Trump administration is using the COVID crisis as a cover to transfer control of the nation from the people to the corporations, that is, to the rich and powerful.

JackRT said:

The Trump administration is using the COVID crisis as a cover to transfer control of the nation from the people to the corporations, that is, to the rich and powerful.

Click to expand...

...or the EPA is operating a skeleton crew (like so many other institutions)...

Sabertooth said:

...or the EPA is operating a skeleton crew (like so many other institutions)...

Click to expand...

That may be entirely true but that should in no way excuse those corporations that are still operating from meeting their obligations to humanity.

...yes, let's pollute more, that does wonders for American lungs during a respiratory pandemic. What's next? Roll back tobacco tax?

essentialsaltes said:

They could have just done that, quietly, without telling anyone.

Rather than announcing to the regulated industries that the rules for compliance, monitoring and reporting are no longer in operation.

Click to expand...

But if they didn’t tell anyone, then the corporations wouldn’t know that they are free to pollute our waterways, landfills, and air.

essentialsaltes said:

Be a shame to miss out on this opportunity.

Click to expand...

Yep. I am going to buy one of those five quart jugs of oil and pour it down a storm sewer. That will show the Covid virus who is boss!

We will all be locked down anyways for a few months , except for essential services, the environment will do fine.