Trump Watch: Spanked in Court

#President Trump attempts to rollback the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. The EPA admits that the move will increase air pollution and kill 1,400 people each year.

#The EPA proposes weakening federal standards for cars and trucks, and taking away California's ability to enforce its own, stricter rules.

#The Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program and allied groups achieve a raft of legal victories. These include beating back approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, ending the EPA's delay of safety regulations at dangerous chemical plants, stopping the delay of the Clean Power Rule, and requiring safeguards for coal-ash dumps.

#A federal judge orders the EPA to ban the heavily used farm chemical chlorpyrifos and reprimands the agency for not doing so sooner.

#The EPA will allow the use of asbestos in U.S. manufacturing. The Russian company Uralasbest puts Trump's face on bags of its product: "Donald is on our side!" says a company Facebook post.

#Despite earlier assurances from acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler that he didn't "think it was appropriate" to meet with clients on whose behalf he had lobbied, he has done so on at least three occasions.

#The Bureau of Land Management will no longer require oil and gas companies, and other industries to pay compensation for the damage their activities do to public lands.

A Carbon Tax at Last?
With Initiative 1631, a loose coalition of some 200 groups known as the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy in the state of Washington, spent years crafting a compromise among labor, social justice, and environmental advocates. The tax level would start at $15 per metric ton in 2020, with $2 increases every year until the state met its 2035 goal: reducing  carbon emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels. Most of the $1 billion raised would go to carbon reduction programs and clean air investment, rather than tax breaks, while  a portion would be directed to low-income communities. Electric vehicle fleets and public transit have been floated as options.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans (and 69 percent of people in the state of Washington) believe fossil fuel companies should pay a carbon tax. (Source: Mother Jones, November/December 2018.)

ADDENDUMS:
*"Our journalism comes from somewhere. It comes from a passion for justice, fairness, and a democracy where facts matter and all can participate." "The truth is, the press is the enemy -- of secrecy, corruption, and manipulation." (Source: Monika Bauerlein, "Stand for Something," Mother Jones, November/December 2018.)

*"It wasn't until 1924 that all Native Americans gained citizenship, 1948 that they could vote in Arizona, and 1972 that the state abolished literacy tests. In 1975, the Voting Rights Act was amended to mandate that translators be made available to assist indigenous voters." "But in the half-decade since the Supreme Court's ruling in Shelby County v. Holder struck down portions of the Voting Rights Act, 212 polling locations have closed in Arizona." (Source: Tim Murphy, "Nation Building," Mother Jones, November/December 2018.)