President-elect Donald Trump is well on his way to perverting the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The federal unit was expressly established to be the government advocate, not apologist for protection of the public's health and surrounding environment.
Trump has set the EPA on a course at odds with its original designation as the only voice in the executive branch exclusively dedicated to championing environmental concerns. As his initial move in aiming to mollify industrial polluters, Trump has nominated a fossil fuel-oriented, climate change-denier to head the agency. The nominee's marching orders are to emasculate the very agency he is supposed to lead, not exactly a ringing endorsement for Senate confirmation.
President-elect Trump alleges that EPA has engaged in regulatory overkill that is undermining the economy. His directive to his nominee, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, is to roll back a host of environmental regulations, supposedly to spur job creation and energy productivity.
It is all a scam. Industry is shedding crocodile tears when it complains that environmental regulations are harming the economy. As Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., pointed out on the floor of Congress, air pollution has declined 72 percent since the 1970 enactment of the Clean Air Act, while America's gross national product has risen more than 200 percent.
Those Trump supporters who are applauding his demonization of the EPA have thus been misled. Environmental regulations are rarely responsible for job loss or plant closures. Marketplace competition, outdated equipment, and automation almost always are.
In the executive branch, the Commerce Department's basic mission is to cater to the interests of business, the Agriculture Department to focus primarily on the concerns of farmers, and the Defense Department to represent first and foremost the priorities of the military.
As for the EPA, although it routinely considers the economic impacts of its regulations (pollution abatement does have costs), health concerns are supposed to be dominant.
Trump's road map would dispense with EPA's original calling as a firewall to protect public health. Instead, he wants Pruitt to dramatically slash the size and scope of the agency.
EPA downsizing at the behest of industry has been tried before (by President Reagan) and it ended badly. Reagan's anointed EPA administrator, Anne Gorsuch, was directed to shrink the agency and delegate most of its enforcement duties to the states. She was so intent on her assignment that she neglected the agency's fundamental obligation to protect the public against pollution threats. Public outrage ensued, and Reagan was forced to fire her and abandon his ideological crusade against the agency. The public chose not to blame Reagan for his subordinate's failings. Whether Trump would also share Reagan's "teflon" trait if his EPA machinations backfired remains to be seen.
In any event, time is of the essence in combatting climate change. Sadly, EPA under Trump is headed in the wrong direction by promoting fossil fuel instead of a gradual transition to a carbon-free economy.
Ever defiant, Trump repeatedly insists he is for crystal clear water and a pollution-free atmosphere, but given his inclinations, he is just spouting a lot of hot air.