Goodbye EPA
By: Hunter Comer
With all these talks of the new Presidental Administration wanting to cut
the EPA or Environmental Protection Agency, I felt we should all take a
moment to address the real dangers of this new plan. Before we can break
down the details of what the Trump Administration would like to do (I
should say like to eliminate) about the environment, you first need to
understand why we have the EPA and why we need to do more about
climate change instead of less.
The EPA was formed in 1970 by the Nixon Administration to set
environmental standards and enforce protection of the planet. Being the
first national environmental agency, the EPA has broken reconds and done
some pretty astounding stuff! Whenever there is an oil spill the EPA are
usually the first ones to have people help clean the area and any animals
in the habitat. Also the EPA has strict policies for car emissions and
pesticides. Not only does the EPA set standards for vehicles they make
sure healthy food and clean water is prominent throughout the United
States.
During the Obama era many new regulations were set by the EPA. Many of
these regulations required fossil fuel companies to be held accountable
for their actions. The Methane Rule established in 2016 requires fossil fuel
companies to keep checking their pipelines for cracks. Another regulation,
the Blowout Prevention Rules increase the safety for those working on oil
rigs off shore.
These regulations and many more could be cut by Trump if we don't do
something to stop it. Currently the White House is proposing 30% cuts to
the EPA's funding. If we allow these regulations to get cut we would be
speeding up the process of climate change, dooming us all.