In December 1970, Richard Nixon initiated the EPA with an Executive Order. The concept was to integrate protections for the America public into policy that would interact with the domestic agendas of energy, transportation, industry, and agriculture.
The scope of the EPA touches almost every aspect of an American's daily life. It goes beyond clean air and water to the physical impacts of asbestos, mercury, lead, and the recognition of billions of chemicals in our households, beauty products, and plastics.
So, what happens if Pruitt gets confirmed? The EPA becomes refashioned to reflect a Trumpian point of view.
Trump and the EPA
Firstly, a disclaimer will be needed to explain the agency is now an operative for big polluters and fossil fuel interests.
The message is clear. Industries and businesses who use toxic materials in their products will have potentially relaxed standards and lowered oversight. The driving factor will be the bottom line of dollars and cents.
Ironically, the Trump rhetoric of how the EPA is stifling the economy has been disproved. There have been three peer-reviewed studies that examined the benefits of a cleaner environment. The circle is larger than just jobs. It takes into account spiraling health costs occurring from illnesses related to pollution factors, lost school and work days and premature deaths.
Trump may promote getting big government out of people's lives, but when the reality of a toxin appearing in water or food comes to light, people will want answers. When hazardous waste gets dumped in landfills that end up near schools or homes, folks will demand to know how and why it happened.
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