Trump and The Environment

[Farmer77]

Dow Chemical Pushes White House to Kill Risk Study Showing Pesticide Dangers 

WASHINGTON — Dow Chemical is pushing a Trump administration that's open to scrapping regulations to ignore the findings of federal scientists who point to a family of widely used pesticides as harmful to about 1,800 critically threatened or endangered species.

Lawyers representing Dow, whose CEO is a close adviser to President Donald Trump, and two other manufacturers of organophosphates sent letters last week to the heads of three of Trump's Cabinet agencies. The companies asked them "to set aside" the results of government studies the companies contend are fundamentally flawed. 

Dow Chemical wrote a $1 million check to help underwrite Trump's inaugural festivities, and its chairman and CEO, Andrew Liveris, heads a White House manufacturing working group. 

 

[Farmer77]

This one is big. Its a flat out land grab for corporate interests. 

Trump order could roll back public lands protections from 3 presidents 

Quote

In a move that could allow him to roll back the protection of lands designated by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that reviews enforcement of the law that gives him power to designate lands as national monuments.

 

The order, which Trump will sign at the Interior Department, could lead to the reshaping of 24 national monuments, including Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Basin and Range National Monument, as well as a host of Pacific Ocean monuments, including the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.

 

Though Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke cast the move as a way to include local voices in the decision to designate monuments, the review of the Antiquities Act -- which was first signed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 -- stands in stark relief to years of bipartisan work at conserving lands.

Wow this is bad 

 

[SHaYap]

All it takes is a whip of the pen over the dotted lines ...

~ Ta Ta Land ...

 

[Farmer77]

Native Alaskan tribes ‘shocked & appalled’ by Trump’s Arctic drilling executive order 

A group representing 40 native Alaskan tribes has severely criticized US President Donald Trump’s new executive order that paves the way for oil drilling in the Arctic.

On Friday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at reducing restrictions on oil drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic. Trump said it would create “thousands and thousands” of jobs and “unleash American energy.”

The order, called the ‘America-First Offshore Energy Strategy’, would reverse drilling bans put in place by Barack Obama last year.

[Tatetopa]

On 3/28/2017 at 3:37 AM, joc said:

We don't really need to be concerned about Climate Change.  We don't need to 'Save the Planet'.  I don't really see the Planet concerned about 'Saving Humanity'.  After all...the Planet kills more people every year than people kill people.

Climate Change...is a 'word phrase' that replaced Global Warming...after it was proven that the Planet is not in fact getting hotter.

Global Warming is a 'word phrase' that replaced Global Cooling...which was the Planetary Scare of the Eightys....after it was proven that the Planet was not in fact cooling at all.

What Climate Change really is...is a 'plan' thwarted upon us by Moscow to dramatically limit the Energy Production Capabilities of the USA.  Because...that has the long term effect of inhibiting Capitalism, which is, the Economic Engine of the USA and the West.

The reason for Climate Change was so that Moscow could 'catch up' with the technological achievements of the US and not remain a Third World Non-SuperPower.

The EPA needs to go.  The truth is only a psycho would poison his own air and water.  We are not psychos.  Not the Dems, not the Republicans...we need to just realize that the real threat in this world is still Russia and Totalitarian Communist expansion.

The Planet cannot and will not save our Liberty and Freedom...only we can do that!

This is a strange mix of stuff to lay on Russia's door.  Why is it that some people believe that Russia and China can secretly convince people of falsehoods and bend them to their will?  What about US power?  Why haven't we convinced them to go capitalist?  

[Michelle]

There is a great irony that spans the presidential terms of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. President Bush, widely viewed as a Texas oil man, presided over eight straight years of declining U.S. crude oil production. In the year 2000, just before President Bush took office, U.S. crude oil production averaged 5.8 million barrels per day (bpd) according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). During President Bush's last year in office, 2008, U.S. crude oil production averaged 5.0 million bpd.

The irony is that President Obama - who is not viewed as a friend of the oil and gas industry - has presided over rising oil production in each of the seven years he has been in office. (On a separate note, expect that streak to be broken in 2016). From that low point in 2008, U.S. oil production has grown each year to reach 9.4 million bpd in 2015 -- a gain of 88% during Obama's presidency. This is in fact the largest domestic oil production increase during any presidency in U.S. history.

cont...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2016/01/15/president-obamas-petroleum-legacy/#63cd70fcc10f

After one of the biggest environmental disasters, under Obama, he didn't take action until leaving office.

[Farmer77]

Just now, Michelle said:

There is a great irony that spans the presidential terms of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. President Bush, widely viewed as a Texas oil man, presided over eight straight years of declining U.S. crude oil production. In the year 2000, just before President Bush took office, U.S. crude oil production averaged 5.8 million barrels per day (bpd) according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). During President Bush's last year in office, 2008, U.S. crude oil production averaged 5.0 million bpd.

The irony is that President Obama - who is not viewed as a friend of the oil and gas industry - has presided over rising oil production in each of the seven years he has been in office. (On a separate note, expect that streak to be broken in 2016). From that low point in 2008, U.S. oil production has grown each year to reach 9.4 million bpd in 2015 -- a gain of 88% during Obama's presidency. This is in fact the largest domestic oil production increase during any presidency in U.S. history.

cont...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2016/01/15/president-obamas-petroleum-legacy/#63cd70fcc10f

After one of the biggest environmental disasters, under Obama, he didn't take action until leaving office.

Soooo he did the wrong  thing for 8 years before doing the right thing so lets dismantle the good things he did because its "your turn"?

Help me out here, what is the point of posting an article from over a year ago?

[Michelle]

3 minutes ago, Farmer77 said:

Soooo he did the wrong  thing for 8 years before doing the right thing so lets dismantle the good things he did because its "your turn"?

Help me out here, what is the point of posting an article from over a year ago?

Hypocrisy, misrepresentation, bias, perspective...It's all in the way things are presented in the news. He did "the wrong thing" for eight years, while it benefited him, and his cronies, and it was not focused on at all. All he had to do was tell people what they wanted to hear. Let Trump take the fallout for the stricter regulations he placed in his last couple of months in office. Now, Trump is the bad guy.

[Farmer77]

Just now, Michelle said:

Hypocrisy, misrepresentation, bias, perspective...It's all in the way things are presented in the news. He did "the wrong thing" for eight years, while it benefited him, and his cronies, and it was not focused on at all. All he had to do was tell people what they wanted to hear. Let Trump take the fallout for the stricter regulations he placed in his last couple of months in office. Now, Trump is the bad guy.

He did do the wrong thing for 8 years while it benefited his cronies, sounds like you're upset now because trump wants to make his cronies money and is rightfully being called out on it. 

Who the hell cares what party is in power? Seriously why cant we look at the issue and say "Thats ****ed up" without trying to defend or rationalize the behavior based on ones political opponents? 

[Michelle]

2 hours ago, Farmer77 said:

He did do the wrong thing for 8 years while it benefited his cronies, sounds like you're upset now because trump wants to make his cronies money and is rightfully being called out on it. 

Who the hell cares what party is in power? Seriously why cant we look at the issue and say "Thats ****ed up" without trying to defend or rationalize the behavior based on ones political opponents? 

I'm not upset at all. I'm disappointed people didn't hold Obama more accountable. That's what's ****ed up. People will go right back to sleep when another Democrat is elected. It happens every time. Where were you the last 8 years? It was a conspiracy, slander or fake news when it came to Obama's actions. Very few people will even acknowledge how many people the " Nobel Peace Prize winner" authorized killing.

[Farmer77]

11 hours ago, Michelle said:

I'm not upset at all. I'm disappointed people didn't hold Obama more accountable. That's what's ****ed up. People will go right back to sleep when another Democrat is elected. It happens every time. Where were you the last 8 years? It was a conspiracy, slander or fake news when it came to Obama's actions. Very few people will even acknowledge how many people the " Nobel Peace Prize winner" authorized killing.

I was on here calling Obama a mass murderer and a scumbag corporate owned POS for the whole DAPL thing for a couple of examples off the top of my head. 

You're not wrong about people in general though, i just think focusing on those things leads us nowhere. 

[White Unicorn]

On 3/28/2017 at 2:28 AM, Farmer77 said:

I was going to start a thread just about the latest executive order but thought instead we'd just make this a repository for information regarding Trump and the environment. 

 

In executive order, Trump to dramatically change US approach to climate change 

President Donald Trump will sign a sweeping executive order Tuesday at the Environmental Protection Agency, which looks to curb the federal government's enforcement of climate regulations by putting American jobs above addressing climate change.

The order represents a clear difference between how Trump and former President Barack Obama view the role the United States plays in combating climate change, and dramatically alters the government's approach to rising sea levels and temperatures -- two impacts of climate change.

 

 

What good are jobs if we lose our homes and food to climate change?

 

EPA has failures and waste fix it don't end it. Focus on free training for new energy jobs of the future and infrastructure. 

 

[Farmer77]

Trump administration cancels proposed limits on marine mammals and sea turtles trapped in fishing nets

 Trump administration announced Monday that it has canceled proposed limits on the number of endangered whales, dolphins and sea turtles that can be killed or injured by sword-fishing nets on the West Coast.

Although the restriction, proposed in 2015, was supported by both the fishing industry and environmental groups, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division said studies show that the pending rule is not warranted because other protections have dramatically reduced the number of marine mammals and turtles trapped in long, drifting gill nets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Farmer77]

IN VICTORY FOR STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE, COURT FINDS THAT APPROVAL OF DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE VIOLATED THE LAW

Washington, D.C. — 

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a significant victory today in its fight to protect the Tribe’s drinking water and ancestral lands from the Dakota Access pipeline.

A federal judge ruled that the federal permits authorizing the pipeline to cross the Missouri River just upstream of the Standing Rock reservation, which were hastily issued by the Trump administration just days after the inauguration, violated the law in certain critical respects.  

 

 

HEY some good news 

[+joc]

On 4/29/2017 at 4:18 PM, Tatetopa said:

This is a strange mix of stuff to lay on Russia's door.  Why is it that some people believe that Russia and China can secretly convince people of falsehoods and bend them to their will?  What about US power?  Why haven't we convinced them to go capitalist?  

We actually did convince a large part of the world to...go Capitalist...which is why we have  Europe and many other parts of the globe involved in Capitalism.  Russia ...since WWII...has been sowing the seeds of their Communist Ideology across the Globe...what we have now is that Ideology taking hold in a rather large way.  Consider your own view point for instance.  

Did you know that the Media in this country is not just the Media in the USA ...in fact...it is Global Media...and the Media has adopted the Ideology of the Communists.  Everything Left...has its roots in Russia. Pure and simple.

[Tatetopa]

6 hours ago, joc said:

We actually did convince a large part of the world to...go Capitalist...which is why we have  Europe and many other parts of the globe involved in Capitalism.

I think you got the cart before the horse on this one.  Europe was at the root of capitalism.  America, India, most of Africa, and Hong Kong are all capitalist colonies of European powers.  We are a spin off of those original Scottish and English capitalists. The US, India, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa are highly successful former colonies and have various forms of capitalism.  The US didn't invent capitalism, it is our legacy from Europe.

 

6 hours ago, joc said:

and the Media has adopted the Ideology of the Communists.  Everything Left...has its roots in Russia. Pure and simple.

I admit I am clueless on this.  I don;t know what this means. I associate communism with a ruthless state dictatorship where the people have no rights and are subservient to the state.  I could be wrong about that, I certainly haven't researched communism.  Why would any free people want that?  Also, I am not sure what left means.  Is it resistance to rule of mega-corporations and support for justice and equality or is it something else?

[Tatetopa]

22 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

I think you got the cart before the horse on this one.  Europe was at the root of capitalism.  America, India, most of Africa, and Hong Kong are all capitalist colonies of European powers.  We are a spin off of those original Scottish and English capitalists. The US, India, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa are highly successful former colonies and have various forms of capitalism.  The US didn't invent capitalism, it is our legacy from Europe.

That list should have included Australia and New Zealand, my apologies.  Maybe Indonesia and Singapore as well.  Philippines might be questionable at this stage. 

[Farmer77]

Hidden in the senate tax bill was a provision which will open the Artic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling 

Senate Republicans Pass Sweeping Tax Bill 

Quote

The bill would also open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling, putting environmental activists on the brink of defeat in what has been a decades-long battle. Opening the wildlife refuge to energy exploration has been a goal of Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_National_Wildlife_Refuge

This profits at all costs mindset is truly disgusting. 

[Tatetopa]

Moody’s Warns Cities to Address Climate Risks or Face Downgrades

By Christopher Flavelle

Published in Bloomberg.

Coastal communities from Maine to California have been put on notice from one of the top credit rating agencies: Start preparing for climate change or risk losing access to cheap credit.

In a report to its clients Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service Inc. explained how it incorporates climate change into its credit ratings for state and local bonds. If cities and states don’t deal with risks from surging seas or intense storms, they are at greater risk of default.

“What we want people to realize is: If you’re exposed, we know that. We’re going to ask questions about what you’re doing to mitigate that exposure,” Lenny Jones, a managing director at Moody’s, said in a phone interview. “That’s taken into your credit ratings.”

Money talks. Credit downgrades for not taking action can be a big deal for municipalities when they need to issue more bonds.  People with lots of money at risk may not be climate deniers, no matter how conservative they are in other matters.

[Farmer77]

Uranium Company Urged Trump To Carve Up Bears Ears, Then He Did

 

Quote

Earlier this month Donald Trump hailed his edict slashing Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument by some 85 percent as a great move for American citizens. But another interest was likely far more delighted: a mining company that lobbied for the change in a bid for access to uranium on the public land.

The Washington Post discovered a campaign by Energy Fuels Resources, a U.S. subsidiary of a Canadian firm, urging the Trump administration to dramatically reduce Bears Ears. The company reached out just months before Trump announced he was slashing the 1.35 million acre site down to 202,000 acres.

 

[Farmer77]

LOL dude might as well have brought a treble hook 

 

Ryan Zinke Bans Reporter for Honest Coverage of His Terrible Fishing Ability

Quote

A Reporter from Outside Magazine wrote a profile on Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke after they went fly-fishing together. Towards the end of a very worthwhile piece, he noticed something worth mentioning:

As Zinke and I casted over the ice-cold water, I noticed something funny about his setup. He kept struggling to strip line out of the bottom of the reel. For a while, I thought he was simply having trouble concentrating on our conversation while casting. No, there was something wrong, and when I asked him to stand for a portrait, I finally saw what the problem was. He had rigged his reel backward, so that the line was coming out of the top of the reel. Every so often when he went to strip line out, he would grasp air where the line should’ve been.

Seems like an inconsequential thing, but in Montana, it’s everything.

After mentioning this at the end of the article the editor of Outside Magazine was banned from the next conference call held by the Department of the Interior where Secretary Zinke was busy attacking the outdoor clothing company, Patagonia, for daring to stand up to him and his illegal action of shrinking National Monuments.

 

[+joc]

5 minutes ago, Farmer77 said:

After mentioning this at the end of the article the editor of Outside Magazine was banned from the next conference call held by the Department of the Interior where Secretary Zinke was busy attacking the outdoor clothing company, Patagonia, for daring to stand up to him and his illegal action of shrinking National Monuments.

Why is 'shrinking' National Monuments illegal.  But grabbing land by the 100s of millions of acres by the Fed Government led by Obama just fine and dandy?

[Farmer77]

Just now, joc said:

Why is 'shrinking' National Monuments illegal.  But grabbing land by the 100s of millions of acres by the Fed Government led by Obama just fine and dandy?

The argument is that doing so violates the Antiquities Act. I'm not completely sure that it flies but ill sure as hell support the folks trying to use that argument in court. 

My perspective truthfully has zero to do with Obama or Trump and solely is about the preservation of our lands. 

 

 

[SHaYap]

Oh no ... not another whataboutism parade ...

~

[+joc]

11 minutes ago, Farmer77 said:

 

11 minutes ago, Farmer77 said:

The argument is that doing so violates the Antiquities Act. I'm not completely sure that it flies but ill sure as hell support the folks trying to use that argument in court. 

My perspective truthfully has zero to do with Obama or Trump and solely is about the preservation of our lands. 

 

 

http://dailysignal.com/2017/12/05/big-win-utah-trump-scales-back-federal-land-grab-obama-administration/

The purpose of the Antiquities Act is in the name—to protect antiquities, or artifacts such as fossils or Native American ruins on federal lands.

In 1906, Congress gave the president the power to designate federal lands as national monuments. According to the law, these lands must constitute “the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”

But the law has been abused by presidents from both parties, particularly so in the last several decades. Trump’s decision to relabel 2 million acres sounds like a lot until you realize that the Obama administration set aside 554 million acres and the George W. Bush administration set aside another 215 million acres.

Before that, only 71 million acres were set aside by all previous presidents combined.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

The land belongs to the states!  Not the Federal Government.  The Antiquities Act gave a clear understanding that we needed to protect some things for posterity...but it also gave the Fed Gov only permission to take the bare minimum necessary to do so.  It never was meant to allow any President to claim hundreds of millions of acres of land as Federal Land.

Edited December 12, 2017 by joc