We’re continuing to raise the alarm about federal rollbacks of environmental protection

I recently co-authored an op-ed in the Lansing State Journal continuing to get the word out that the federal government is gutting important environmental protections.

Nathan Murphy

If you regularly read this blog, you probably read my post about the Trump administration’s rollbacks of the CLean Water Act protection for headland streams and wetlands. I also mentioned rollbacks to the National Environmental Protection Act and the Migratory Birds Treaty, and pointed people to a New York Times article that catalogues over 100 rollbacks either finalized or in the process.  Recently, I also wrote a bit on how the courts are pushing back since most of these rollbacks are in contradiction to the science and the law.

A week ago, Steve Chester and I published an op-ed in the Lansing State Journal that goes beyond just the Clean Water Act rollbacks and highlights some others. Steve was the director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality from 2003 to 2010. He and I were part of the efforts to protect Michigan’s environment including  passing the Great Lakes Compact, which protects our waters from large-scale withdrawal. Steve is an expert on all things environmental, and like me, he can tell you these rollbacks are terrible ideas.

As we point out: “The actions taken by EPA today to weaken the environmental protections established during the past four decades will result in dirty air, contaminated water and poisoned land for generations to come.

These actions are absurd and harmful and that’s why we’re going to keep talking about this. The large, long term effects of these rollbacks will harm our families and our environment for decades to come.

Authors

Nathan Murphy