Environment | WPN World People News

A coalition of environmental and fishing organizations denounce the Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle laws that protect clean water and public health. Without giving notice to Tribes, water quality advocates, citizens, or fishing families, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to revoke its own 2016 rule that ensures protective standards for Washington’s citizens. If finalized, the proposed rule would pave the way for polluters to dump greatly increased amounts of toxic pollution into state waters, threatening communities, salmon, and orca whales that rely on clean water to thrive.

n Apr. 11, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm David Bernhardt as Secretary of the Interior. In so doing, the Senate has recklessly greenlit a man who has devoted his career to advancing the interests of the nation’s worst corporate polluters, including Taylor Energy and Halliburton.

On April 11, Greenpeace launches one of its biggest ever expeditions – an almost year-long pole to pole voyage from the Arctic to the Antarctic – to highlight the many threats facing the oceans and to campaign for a Global Ocean Treaty covering all seas outside of national waters.

On Apr. 10, President Trump signed two executive orders that attempt to undermine state authority and environmental protections in order to expedite permits for pipelines and other fossil fuel projects. The following is a statement from Jill Tauber, Earthjustice’s Vice President of Litigation for Climate and Energy.

The Tohono O’odham Nation, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and Hopi Tribe filed a complaint in U.S. District Court challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to issue Rosemont Copper Company a permit to commence construction of a massive open-pit copper mine on the eastern flank of the Santa Rita Mountains in the Cienega Creek watershed. The Tribes are represented by Earthjustice, an environmental legal organization.

On Apr. 10, in support of President Trump's Executive Orders to promote greater certainty in the infrastructure permitting processes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking affirmative steps to promote nationwide consistency and regulatory certainty under a core Clean Water Act (CWA) program. The action authorizes the EPA to ensure consistency across the country when imposing regulations under the CWA.

Earthjustice, the nation’s largest environmental law organization announced its support for the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act, legislation introduced by Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) to halt all new mountaintop removal mining permit applications, and any expansion of existing permits, until a comprehensive study of the practice’s health effects could be completed. The legislation authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct the study.

A California state judge has affirmed the constitutional right of residents concerned about air and climate pollution to challenge power plant siting decisions in their local Superior Court.
In 2013, Earthjustice, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2001 law limiting judicial review of the California Energy Commission’s power-plant approvals to the California Supreme Court.

As governments meet at the UN to negotiate towards an historic Global Ocean Treaty, a groundbreaking study by leading marine biologists has mapped out how to protect over a third of the world’s oceans by 2030, a target that scientists say is crucial in order to safeguard wildlife and to help mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The report shows that authorities exchanged 2,257 alerts on dangerous products. Toys' belonged to the most notified product category (31%), followed by 'motor vehicles' (19%), and 'clothing, textiles and fashion items' (10%), while the main risks flagged were chemical risks and injuries (25% each) followed by the choking risk for children (18%).