Earth Day is in some ways more of a branding opportunity these days than anything else. As any science or environmental reporter can tell you, PR emails for any number of ridiculous tie-ins flow in to inboxes for weeks or months before, often from companies that have at best a tenuous claim on any environmentalist bona fides — it’s how you end up with mind-melting press release headlines like “Celebrating Earth Day across Marathon Petroleum.” We can now add the Environmental Protection Agency to that general pile.
“From the mountains to the plains, the rivers and the oceans, across our nation’s vast landscape, we all have a stake in our environment,” said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, in an Earth Day video message. “This Earth Day, EPA is Powering the Great American Comeback, energizing our economy as we carry out our mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
You may recall that the “Great American Comeback” in question, announced in early February, has a number of “pillars” to it, and only one of them is related to “Clean Air, Land, and Water for Every American.” The other four are what might succinctly be described as “doing the exact opposite,” focused on increasing fossil fuel production, cutting the permitting requirements that protect land, water, and people, and for some reason, bringing back auto manufacturing jobs and making the US the “Artificial Intelligence Capital of the World.”
A month after that, Zeldin seemed even more buoyant in announcing the “biggest deregulatory action in US history” to “power” that Comeback, starting a process to reverse much of the half-century of environmental progress in which the EPA has played a central role — since 1970, to be exact, which is also when the first Earth Day was held. Everything from the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard to tailpipe emissions rules and power plant regulations is under fire, pending what will be a veritable mountain of litigation.
There is literally no version of Zeldin’s tenure that doesn’t leave American dirtier and more dangerous than it was when he arrived. And here he is, a month after saying the EPA’s actual purpose is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business,” claiming with a straight face that the actions and original mission are not now more or less orthogonal to each other. It is a hallmark of the Trump administration, to simply say one thing while doing another — Make American Healthy Again, said the department cutting milk inspections — and either hope no one notices or not care at all if they do.
“We remain committed to clean air, land and water for all Americans,” he said on Tuesday, a few days after touring a Texas oil field with Ted Cruz. “We can and we will accomplish this goal. Happy Earth Day.”
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