Scientists who were appointed to advise the EPA on air pollution kept meeting independently after the agency dissolved their panel. They say current regulations aren’t strict enough.
Industrial facilities like this oil refinery in Anacortes, Washington are significant air pollution sources.
Walter Siegmund/Wikimedia
An air pollution expert with years of experience advising federal regulators describes how the Trump administration is speeding up reviews and reducing scientific input.
A study finds that higher ozone levels correlate with slower performance times for college endurance athletes.
Pavel1964
US ozone pollution has fallen in recent decades, but exposure to low levels of ozone still has serious effects on human health and well-being.
Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., speaks about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and the state of the EPA during a protest on April 25, 2018, in Washington.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
After two years of turmoil at the EPA in the 1980s, President Reagan hit the reset button, choosing a Republican who supported environmental protection to head the agency.
Tighter emissions standards create costs for truck manufacturers yet provide health benefits for society. How should they be weighed?
Lesterman
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has proposed steps that would reduce economic benefits to society from new regulations. An economist who worked for Presidents Clinton and Obama calls this a strategy to justify deregulation.
Protesters at a rally on the state of the EPA organized by the American Federation of Government Employees union, April 25, 2018, in Washington, D.C.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York); Lindsey Dillon, University of California, Santa Cruz e Phil Brown, Northeastern University
Government agencies are supposed to listen to the industries they regulate, but what if they tune out everyone else? Scholars call this regulatory capture, and some staffers see it happening at EPA.
Scott Pruitt signing an official order at the Resolute Desk in President Trump’s office.
EPA
A desk is a place to work. But it can also be a symbol of prestige and power, as EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has demonstrated in his choice of expensive and ostentatious desks for his office.
Smog alert in Cleveland, Ohio, July 20, 1973.
USEPA
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants to change the grounds for setting US air pollution targets. An environmental lawyer explains why Pruitt’s approach misreads the law and could roll back decades of gains.
The landmark Harvard Six Cities study found a strong link between air pollution and health risks.
Pixabay
The EPA intends to limit what scientific studies can inform policy – a change long sought by industry. A long-time public health researcher explains the single study at the root of the controversy.
Deriving fuel from trees costs more than wind and solar power and it emits more carbon than coal. There are many heated debates about this kind of energy, known as forest or woody biomass.
March for Science in Portland, Oregon, April 22, 2017.
Another Believer
The March for Science on April 14 and Earth Day on April 22 are likely to generate big crowds demonstrating against Trump administration policies. Here are some issues they’ll be marching about.
Rush hour on the Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, September 9, 2016.
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Air pollution could be the next battleground between California and the Trump administration, which is reviewing the Golden State’s special legal authority to regulate tailpipe emissions.
Customers line up to buy gasoline in San Jose, California, on March 15, 1974, during an Arab oil embargo. The crisis spurred enactment of the first U.S. vehicle fuel economy standards.
AP
Since the federal government started setting fuel economy standards, US-built cars have doubled their fuel efficiency, saving money for consumers and reducing pollution.
One of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s signature moves has been to put the brakes on stringent fuel economy rules.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
An academic suing the EPA over its decision to bar certain scientists from serving on advisory boards says the EPA needs to address legitimate criticisms to rebuild after Pruitt.
Grid operators set the prices for energy markets and are structured to take the lowest prices – a disadvantage for coal and nuclear power.
Two moves by the Trump administration signal a dramatic shift in energy policy to favor coal and nuclear, but markets forces and legal challenges mean changes could take years.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is an unabashed ally of the fossil fuels – industry his agency is supposed to regulate.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
The Trump administration is committed to deregulating industry, as it’s done with the EPA Clean Power Plan. But a historian shows how regulations have actually benefited both industry and consumers.
Having an antagonistic debate over climate change will not shed any more light on the fundamentals of climate science.
Ivica Drusany/Shutterstock.com
Why assembling two teams to debate climate change is all about political spectacle and sowing doubt – and has nothing to do with actual climate science.
To comply with air pollution laws, midwest energy companies built tall smokestacks to displace pollutants. This one at Indiana’s Rockport Generating Station is 1,038 feet high, just 25 feet shorter than the Eiffel Tower.
Don Sniegowski
Trump administration officials argue that states can regulate more effectively than the federal government. But without leadership from the top, federalism may allow red states to avoid acting.
Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology and Director of the Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Inequalities, Social Justice, and Policy, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)