OUR DAILY THREAD: The Polluted Presidency
He simply doesn't care
THE SET-UP: Although it is understandable given his non-stop barrage of affronts to common sense, common decency and the Constitution, Trump’s impact on the environment hasn’t gotten one-tenth of the coverage it deserves or requires.
From what I’ve seen, he and a cadre of industry shills and pre-vetted ideologues are using the absence of Congressional oversight and minimal public scrutiny to do anything and everything they can—from big things like dismantling the Endangered Species Act, shutting down the collection of climate data and attempting to kill off renewable energy … to smaller, obscure things like opening fishing in newly protected waters and this new recission first reported by E&E News:
EPA plans to remove a regulation that accelerated Freedom of Information Act requests for underserved communities encumbered with pollution.
The agency is slated to issue a final rule this month to eliminate expedited processing criteria for environmental justice-related requests under its revised FOIA regulations, according to the governmentwide regulatory agenda released last week. The move will end another part of the Biden administration’s work at EPA, which strived to promote relief for areas where low-income populations and people of color live adjacent to industrial sites.
Asked about the coming final rule, EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch said the agency “is committed to enhancing its implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) consistent with applicable law to better serve the American public.”
Hirsch added, “If finalized, the proposed rulemaking could save the agency time and money and is intended to align EPA’s FOIA regulations with government-wide policy consistent with” President Donald Trump’s executive order to rid the federal government of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs.
This isn’t about DEI. This is about letting the petrochemical industry get away with murder. Just ask the perennially poisoned people living in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley.
For decades, major technological advances in processing hydrocarbons transformed an 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River into an engine of economic growth for the purveyors and purchasers of toxic petrochemicals. It’s also an engine of growth for the tumors afflicting those who live and work there, many of whom are poor and struggling with negative trade-offs they had no role in making. They get the asthma and cancer and crippling neurological maladies. Investors get wealthier.
Indeed, the externalities they endure are so negative, Cancer Alley has been characterized as a “sacrifice zone.” The concept was first adapted in the 1970s from an agricultural term for “natural spaces ‘sacrificed’ to the irreparable consequences of heavy grazing by hoofed animals.” By “sacrificing” the topsoil in one area, the rancher preserves the surrounding pastures. It’s since become an all-too apt analogy for the lives and landscapes trampled by the march of so-called progress:
From coal and uranium mining on Native reservations in the ‘80s, to toxic industrial pollution in predominantly Black neighborhoods in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the concept of a “sacrifice area” or “zone” readily explained the brutal logic of sacrificing the health, welfare and the lives of those living on lands that, essentially, were written off to protect and/or enrich others living on the equivalent of protected pastures.
Not coincidentally, the people of Cancer Alley spent years trying to get someone at the state or federal level to do something about their poisoned air, water, soil and bodies. Finally, in 2023, their government brought a case against one of the polluters. But their struggle for equal justice under the law was trumped in 2025 by a President who prioritized the petrochemical industry over the lives of human beings. And it’s a precedent that will no doubt apply to a whole new crop of sacrifice zones being created around data centers. - jp
EPA’s Pesticide Approvals Prompt Fears of PFAS on Farms
https://civileats.com/2026/07/08/epas-pesticide-approvals-prompt-fears-of-pfas-contamination-on-farms/
Trump administration erodes marine protections, invites more fishing
https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2026-07-09/trump-administration-erodes-marine-protections-in-warming-ocean
Trump administration approves California company’s plan to pipe water out of the Mojave Desert
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-07-09/cadiz-water-pipeline
Trump’s push to revive coal forces Arizona power plants to remain open
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2026/07/06/arizona-coal-power-plants-are-remaining-open-to-meet-trump-demands/90770653007/
EPA proposes to loosen requirements for truck pollution controls
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5961282-epa-truck-pollution-regs/
Trump’s Latest Pardons Include Diesel Tuners Who Violated Clean Air Act
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a71858929/trump-diesel-tuners-presidential-pardons/
‘Can you help us?’: US oil execs turn to Trump to topple Europe’s climate rules
https://www.eenews.net/articles/can-you-help-us-us-oil-execs-turn-to-trump-to-topple-europes-climate-rules/
Big Oil Takeover ‘Now Complete,’ Watchdog Warns as Exxon Lawyer Joins Trump DOJ
https://www.commondreams.org/news/big-oil-takeover-now-complete-watchdog-warns-as-exxon-lawyer-joins-trump-doj
Trump White House Environmental Council Chair Exits for K Street
https://news.bgov.com/bloomberg-government-news/trump-white-house-environmental-council-chair-exits-for-k-street
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