Minnesota firms seek, and get, waivers to spew toxins
You’ve probably seen that the Environmental Protection Agency, which is essentially being destroyed thanks to the relentless corruption and mind-bogglingly pitiful stupidity of Trump and his Buffoon Brigade, was told a while back to essentially stop enforcing environmental protection laws, under cover of the COVID-19 pandemic. And you have to be awfully naive, not to get that the long-term intent is that this become to a large extent permanent policy.
Most states do not publish any information about companies that say they are struggling to comply with environmental laws, which means most Americans who live near factories, refineries, farms and other sources of soot, smog and chemical emissions have no way to know whether the pandemic has led to extra pollution.
“I think it is a huge deal,” says George Czerniak, the former director of the air and radiation division for the EPA regional office for the Upper Midwest. “I think that the potentially affected public has a right to know these things, and regulatory agencies and companies have a responsibility to share this information.”
…Only a handful of states, including Minnesota, Indiana and Pennsylvania, publish details online about which companies have contacted state environmental authorities for regulatory relief. Only Minnesota publishes details for all requests, including requests that are pending or denied.
(NPR)
I don’t suppose that I’m sticking my neck out any too far, by suggesting that Minnesota wouldn’t be an outlier, here, if right-wing Trump acolytes were in charge of the state’s executive branch. But a lot of other states with Democrats in charge aren’t doing this at all properly, either. Corporate Dems…
Here’s the Minnesota info. The vast majority (505 out of 531, as of the evening of June 18) of waiver requests are being approved. Given the time frame, “approved” must mean rubber-stamped without a lot of careful scrutiny, to say the least.
If you’re a regular viewer of this website, in addition to your being cool and righteous to the max you know that it is of particular note here that the cads at PolyMet/Glencore were among the very few so far to have their application rejected. Perhaps recent court defeats for the MPCA have something to do with that.
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