The House today passed the FY2021 Minibus 1. The bill increases funding for the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency and includes provisions to protect and prioritize public health, while supporting environmental programs to address climate change,safeguard clean water and invest in green infrastructure. Also included are specific provisions for fighting racism, increasing environmental justice activities and funding research into the role of protecting wildlife and wild places to prevent future pandemics.
WASHINGTON D.C.-- The House Appropriations Committee today took up the FY2021 Interior and EPA spending bills. The bills increase funding for the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency and include specific provisions for fighting racism, increasing environmental justice activities and funding research into the role of protecting wildlife and wild places to prevent future pandemics.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Thursday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a Trump administration attempt to allow polluters to illegally sidestep clean air regulations -- and protected the public’s right to seek legal relief.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The Environmental Protection Agency today published a final rule in the federal register stripping Clean Water Act protections for more than half the nation’s wetlands and millions of miles of streams. The cuts put drinking water sources for millions of people in the U.S. at risk and jeopardize the ability to counter floods, droughts, toxic algal blooms, groundwater depletion and other worsening water issues driven by the climate crisis.
The Sierra Club submitted more than 23,900 comments from members and supporters opposing former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler’s illegal attempt to scrap Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today marks 47 years since the Clean Water Act was passed into law. Since then, water quality in the United States has improved remarkably. The number of healthy waterways has doubled, providing clean water for drinking, recreation and wildlife. Like other bedrock environmental safeguards, the Clean Water Act has come under attack recently as the Trump administration has sought to make it harder for states to protect local waterways.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former coal lobbyist and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler finalized his rollback of America’s Clean Water Rule today, putting millions of people’s drinking water at risk from dangerous water pollution.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a recent interview with Eva McKend of Spectrum News, Donald Trump’s EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was pressed about his reaction to Trump’s racist attacks on four women of color in Congress -- Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley. Wheeler twice refused to condemn Trump’s racism and instead pivoted to his own attacks on Congress while distorting the effects of the Administration’s policies that will lead to more pollution, especially in low-income communities and communities of color.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the EPA announced that Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, Bill Wehrum, will leave the EPA at the end of the month.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, in a hearing about the Administration’s rollback of the clean car standards, EPA Assistant Administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation Bill Wehrum four times refused to answer Representative McNerney’s yes or no questions on whether he believes in climate science and whether it poses a danger to human health, despite rollbacks to the Clean Power Plan and the clean car standards.
On Tuesday, the same evening Trump claimed the US has the “cleanest air and water” at a campaign rally in Orlando, Florida, the AP reported that U.S. air quality is deteriorating after years of improvement. The decrease in air quality comes as Trump rolls back two of the US’ biggest defenses of clean air and a safe climate: the Clean Power Plan, replaced yesterday with the “Dirty Power Scam” and the clean car standards. Notably, the main architects of the rollbacks from EPA and NHTSA’s political leadership are about to face a congressional hearing.