Industry
expected to self-regulate
The
Environmental Protection Agency, headed by former coal lobbyist Andrew
Wheeler, announced on Thursday a sweeping and indefinite
suspension of environmental rules amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic, a
move green groups warned gives the fossil fuel industry a "green light to pollute with impunity."
Under
the new policy (pdf), which the EPA insisted
is temporary while providing no timeframe, big polluters will effectively
be trusted to regulate themselves and will
not be punished for failing to comply with reporting rules and other
requirements. The order—applied retroactively beginning March 13, 2020—requests
that companies "act responsibly" to avoid violations.
"EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements," Wheeler said in a statement.
"This temporary policy is designed to provide enforcement discretion under the current, extraordinary conditions, while ensuring facility operations continue to protect human health and the environment."
Critics,
such as youth climate leader Greta Thunberg, accused the Trump administration of
exploiting the coronavirus crisis to advance its longstanding goal of
drastically rolling back environmental protections.
"The
EPA uses this global pandemic to create loopholes for destroying the
environment," tweeted Thunberg. "This is a schoolbook example for
what we need to start looking out for."
Cynthia
Giles, former head of the EPA's Office of Enforcement under the Obama
administration, told The
Hill that the new policy is "essentially a nationwide waiver of
environmental rules for the indefinite future."
"It
tells companies across the country that they will not face enforcement even if
they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws,
so long as they claim that those failures are in some way 'caused' by the virus
pandemic," said Giles. "And it allows them an out on monitoring too,
so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was."
The
EPA's order, for which the oil industry aggressively lobbied, represents the latest
effort by the Trump administration to use the coronavirus pandemic to advance right-wing policies that would
likely not be permitted—or would at least face greater scrutiny—under normal
circumstances.
As Common Dreams reported last week, the White House is advancing an assault on public-sector unions, xenophobic border policies, and other objectives amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has officially infected more than 85,000 people in the United States as of Friday morning.
"Outrageous," tweeted Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.),
co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in response to the EPA's new
policy. "Suspending all environmental regulations indefinitely? This has
nothing to do with coronavirus. This has everything to do with protecting Big
Business."