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A NUMBER OF US states and environmental groups are set to challenge President Donald Trump’s plans to roll back a slew of environmental protections enacted by Barack Obama.
California, one of the most progressive states in the US on climate issues, is among those heading toward a legal showdown with the Trump administration over its environmental policies.
Trump signed an executive order yesterday rolling back key Obama-era measures to combat climate change.
Trump insists the order will benefit American workers, notably coal miners.
But the measure has environmental groups and officials up in arms and vowing a showdown.
“Gutting #CPP (the Clean Power Plan) is a colossal mistake and defies science itself,” California Governor Jerry Brown said in a tweet, referring to the Clean Power Plan aimed at curbing global warming.
“Erasing climate change may take place in Donald Trump’s mind, but nowhere else,” he added.
Jerry Brown / Twitter
Jerry Brown / Twitter / Twitter
Brown has led California’s climate change crusade, which saw the state in the last decade significantly slash its yearly climate-warming emissions by about 35 million metric tonnes.
It has pledged to cut them even further by 2020, with other states looking to follow suit.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti joined Brown in saying that Trump would meet with fierce resistance over his new directive.
“No matter what happens in Washington, we will work to meet our Sustainable City Plan goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050, move toward zero emissions transportation, and pursue our vision of a 100 percent clean energy future,” the mayor said.
Although the federal government sets emission standards for cars in the United States, that is not the case in car-crazy California. In 1970, the state struck an agreement to adopt stricter air quality rules to combat the smog that plagues the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Scientific evidence
While the auto industry initially pushed back at the stricter measures, today the state has more than half of the plug-in electric cars in the country.
But there are fears that this could change, should Trump — who has called global warming a hoax — direct the Environmental Protection Agency to roll back on the state’s special waiver for tougher emissions rules.
California leaders have already said that they would not go down without a fight and have vowed to push forth with even stricter measures.
Experts say Trump could very well rescind the waiver — which would lead to fierce legal battles — or adopt new federal regulations without challenging those of California and 13 other states that have adopted the same stringent clean air standards as California.
“The third option is to go to Congress to revoke the Clean Air Act and that’s what we fear the most,” Stanley Young, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, said.
Cara Horowitz, co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA, said that while it is impossible to predict the outcome of a showdown between California and the Trump administration, the state’s track record in combatting pollution was a plus.
“My sense is that California has a long history of aggressively regulating pollution and getting these waivers,” she said.
As to the new EPA chief Scott Pruitt’s declared skepticism about climate change, experts say that in the end, scientific data will prove the best defence.
“The fact that he denies it doesn’t change the science or the law,” Young said.
He added that nonetheless Pruitt may prove a savvy adversary given his legal background in suing the EPA repeatedly as attorney general of Oklahoma.
“He knows exactly how the agency works and what you can do to do the most damage,” Young said. “We thought he was going to use a hammer and instead he chose to use a scalpel.”
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Why is it on us? We can’t control the amount of packaging these days. Guess who can? Oh yeah!-the conpanies who package their goods. Deal with them.
@a: Totally agree that we should hold these companies accountable. I’ve even written to some companies in relation to this.
However, we can also have a huge impact by not buying products with wasteful packaging. If we don’t buy the products, they won’t keeping making them.
We should also buy more local and second hand products. Charity shops are great for Christmas shopping.
@a: Exactly, you will see ‘My M&S’ ‘My this’ & ‘My That’ but when it comes down to it you will also see ‘YOUR WASTE’ – yourwaste.ie
They don’t want the waste yet they allow it to be produced.
@a: I wrote to my local TD (a green party TD) and never received any response but this was the gist of it. More expensive everyday items you buy in the likes of Dunnes generally (but not always) comes in packaging that is recyclable- stuff such as apples etc. But your same lower priced items in Lidl/Aldi etc do not and it’s this that is making a difference. There is also confusion amongst many between the difference of ‘made from recycled material’ and ‘recyclable material’ it confuses most and the packaging can be difficult to discern based on that. The onus should be on suppliers/packaging companiez/sellers and government to make it impossible to sell in non recyclable material.
No convenient recycling facilities available for polystyrene so this still goes into the general waste. Only lip service from companies to reduce reuse recycle but the consuner gets the blame
@Dangling Damo: Even though most of the bin collectors don’t allow it they will actually separate it in the recycling center. It’s purely a cost thing so it’s not a heinous crime like including wet waste or something which can mean an entire trucks worth of recycling is ruined.
I try to avoid such packaging when I can but I don’t feel one bit bad about sending it off in the bin when I do happen to need to get rid of some and I don’t have enough other stuff to justify a run to a bring site.
Limit your contacts,
Limit your travel ,
Limit your waste ,
Sure why don’t I limit oxygen aswell while I’m at it this Christmas
@JillyBean: You could
Selection boxes drive me mad. Complete waste of cardboard and plastic.
@Caroline Otoole: Absolutely right. Yet people still buy them and blame the companies who make them for the waste.
Kids don’t care about the box. Just buy a few chocolate bars instead.
@Caroline Otoole: Not just that they are packaged using cardboard and plastic, they make the packaging oversized to make it appear you are getting more than you actually are, an even bigger waste.
I am less concerned about the cardboard, but the plastic needs to be removed.
If the Govt implemented a returns process for that kind of plastic (like 10c per pack) going back to the point of purchase, those shops would then put pressure on suppliers to produce without the plastic.
Got a package from Amazon this week that would usually be wrapped in a box or plastic bag, but this came in a paper bag. It can be done.
@Conrad Shields: actually saw a post on twitter during the week about this. It was a photo of the packaging alongside the bit of chocolate thats in one. It was quite jarring.
@Caroline Otoole: totally agree! Over sized packaging!! I don’t buy selection boxes for this reason
I am calling on all journal readers to boycott these polls until a serious controversial topic is put up for discussion. The odd seasonal topic is OK, but not a relentless diet of them.
I made a perfectly valid point and was censored by the moderator.
@SteveBuzzard: I believe the moderator is fond of a box of After Eights. Do you see where I am going with this? :-)
Celebrating with my parents this year, thankfully, and they live in a zero waste household so I have no choice.
Make up gift sets and perfume packaging are the worst offenders next to children’s toys. I’m trying as best I can to avoid buying them. It’s not easy though.
@Teresa O’Donnell-Joyce: Keep it up. All we can do is our best. We just need to be conscious consumers.
Consider making your own gift sets with individually selected products instead of prepackaged sets. It’s a much more thoughtful gift. It’s not easy and takes extra time of course. I understand that sometimes it’s just not an option.
Good luck with the Christmas shopping.
@Jim Smith: My family will be given home baking gifts. Shame about my dodgy baking skills. It’ll be fun.
Yes I won’t be buying as much food this year like tins of sweets crisps biscuits etc. Wasted do much ladt year
Will buy some nice crackers cheese and maybe some nice meats to go with.
Stove ,free heat ,end of story.
I’m bought three rolls of wrapping paper last year, and I am still using it. But then again, the gifts weren’t huge to wrap.
@Lisa Saputo: gift bags are handy as you can reuse them next year once you don’t write on the tag
Moderator doesn’t like musical notes either. We’ll it’s their loss. It was a a wonderful comment;-)
and if people cannot limit their waste by eating and drinking moderately, they can recycle personal waste by using a compost lavatory.
No
I can’t be ars@d to wrap gifts, so this poll is perfect for me. I just used gift bags, that my Mammy saves and reuses the next Christmas!! We have been doing are bit for ages and didn’t even know it. Lol
I can’t be ars@d to wrap gifts, so this poll is perfect for me. I just used gift bags, that my Mammy saves and reuses the next Christmas!! Lol
have your say