Sustainability Policy
On April 13, 2017, the EPA published a Request for Comment. This is a mechanism intended to be used by governments to understand what the people think, want, and/or need. It was instituted by the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a law designed to make sure that the growth of large federal agencies would not result in a government distant from the people. For anyone who thinks big government is a problem, the APA should be something they care about, because it helps the public to know what our agencies are doing, and it gives us a voice about what they ought to do.
The system works if we pay attention to it, and if we hold our governments to it. The Request for Comment that EPA published was pursuant to Trump’s Executive Order 13777, “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda.” EPA was following orders in “seeking input on regulations that may be appropriate for repeal, replacement, or modification.”
The system works if we pay attention to it, and if we hold our governments to it. The Request for Comment that EPA published was pursuant to Trump’s Executive Order 13777, “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda.” EPA was following orders in “seeking input on regulations that may be appropriate for repeal, replacement, or modification.”
Let’s just say that again. The EPA was forced to ask the public what environmental regulations should maybe be repealed, replaced, or changed. Why would they ask that? Because the agencies are required by the APA to ask what we, the people, think about that, before they do something significant. So it meant they were going to repeal, replace or change our environmental protections.
When there is a quick easy question to resolve, the notice and comment period might be short, say thirty days. When the issue is knotty and you really need to reach a lot of people and give them a chance to be heard, you provide a much longer period. If you go to the docket, on regulations.gov and click on “View all comments and documents in this docket”, you will see what people had to say about the idea of repealing, replacing or changing environmental rules. You will also see that the people of the United States were given just a few short weeks to think about this unprecedented and vast topic. The comment period closed just one month later, on May 15.
Four hundred sixty eight thousand, five hundred and three comments were received. That many people troubled themselves to write in. You can read 63,433 comments – they don’t show you all of them, many are just duplicate – but they count too even if they are not counted here. On the first page that displays, sorting by new, we find Anonymous Comment 17692, typical of every other comment on that page:
When there is a quick easy question to resolve, the notice and comment period might be short, say thirty days. When the issue is knotty and you really need to reach a lot of people and give them a chance to be heard, you provide a much longer period. If you go to the docket, on regulations.gov and click on “View all comments and documents in this docket”, you will see what people had to say about the idea of repealing, replacing or changing environmental rules. You will also see that the people of the United States were given just a few short weeks to think about this unprecedented and vast topic. The comment period closed just one month later, on May 15.
Four hundred sixty eight thousand, five hundred and three comments were received. That many people troubled themselves to write in. You can read 63,433 comments – they don’t show you all of them, many are just duplicate – but they count too even if they are not counted here. On the first page that displays, sorting by new, we find Anonymous Comment 17692, typical of every other comment on that page:
I am appalled that EPA regulations will be rolled back! I was alive at the time when rivers were flammable and you could not see buildings in cities because of the smog. It has taken us many years to make the improvements that have been made, but we are far from done protecting our earth. Climate change is real and is man made! We do not have another planet! We MUST protect our planet with regulations that keep the greedy people from pursuing wealth at the expense of our planet. We cannot drink money or breathe money - we need clean air and water. We need to stop the warming of the planet - sea levels WILL rise! The weather will be unlike anything we now know. We MUST impose strict regulations to stop the death of our great planet! Look ahead, not just to what money will be made by the people alive now. The greedy will kill us all!
Flashing forward 200 pages and picking a comment at random, we see a Mr. Delaney from the Bronx has written:
Dear EPA Regulatory Reform Task Force,
All regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency are critical, science-based rules that we need and should not be opened up for debate or elimination.
Thank you.
All regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency are critical, science-based rules that we need and should not be opened up for debate or elimination.
Thank you.
Flashing forward another 100 pages and clicking at random we find:
While I am a staunch supporter of Freedom in every form after the Libertarian fashion; I am also aware that this is not the eighteenth century anymore so the world is a very complex place. Therefore regulations are need to protect the public and the planet at large and to protect the scrupulous from the unscrupulous.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in protecting the environment on every level.
While the present administration has a general distrust for Science and scientists, Science is one of our most useful epistemological tools. We must separate any personal feelings about scientists or political opinions about scientists and look at the incontrovertible data that is being presented. Now is not a time to reduce funding in environmental protection or climate science but rather a time to fund more and better focused efforts.
There are too many humans on the planet producing too many toxins to be dumped into the environment not to take action to reduce this to an amount that the environment, the commons, can detoxify in a sustainable fashion or ourselves and many other species will perish within a century.
The United States needs to be a leader in environmental protection and in environmental science. The budget cuts are too extreme just to be making things more efficient. They will damage the future environment resulting in more heart lung and cancer deaths in the near term (one to thirty years).
Nowhere is this more apparent than in protecting the environment on every level.
While the present administration has a general distrust for Science and scientists, Science is one of our most useful epistemological tools. We must separate any personal feelings about scientists or political opinions about scientists and look at the incontrovertible data that is being presented. Now is not a time to reduce funding in environmental protection or climate science but rather a time to fund more and better focused efforts.
There are too many humans on the planet producing too many toxins to be dumped into the environment not to take action to reduce this to an amount that the environment, the commons, can detoxify in a sustainable fashion or ourselves and many other species will perish within a century.
The United States needs to be a leader in environmental protection and in environmental science. The budget cuts are too extreme just to be making things more efficient. They will damage the future environment resulting in more heart lung and cancer deaths in the near term (one to thirty years).
This is what you find if you take a tour through the docket: unanimous support for environmental laws and urging of the Administration not to change them. There is probably support for the Administration's plan somewhere in there but it didn't appear with random searching. People should read what’s on the docket, and be encouraged, if they think they are alone in caring about the environment. Reading what other citizens think should strengthen their resolve, if they are seeking to muster the political will for a more responsible society.
ACTIVITY
For your Classroom, your Community Group, or you, the Environmental Citizen.
For your Classroom, your Community Group, or you, the Environmental Citizen.
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