Environment

 EcoWatch -  The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday announced a plan to repeal a landmark pollution rule that aims to eliminate most greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in the next decade. Not only will power plants be able to release more greenhouse gases, but another regulatory rollback will allow them to pollute the air with highly toxic chemicals like mercury.

“By gutting these clean air standards, the EPA is giving a free pass to the nation’s dirtiest power plants and most toxic polluters,” said Democratic Senator from Rhode Island Sheldon Whitehouse in a statement responding to the announcement, as The Washington Post reported. “Pollutants like mercury and greenhouse gases are harmful, a settled scientific fact for decades, and the evidence has only gotten stronger.”

EcoWatch -   President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he is planning to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “as it exists today” after the 2025 hurricane season. Trump said he wants to make disaster response and recovery the responsibility of states rather than the federal government.

“We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said, as CNN reported. “A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor.”

Trump added that less federal aid would be provided for disaster recovery, with the funding to be distributed directly by the Oval Office....

Plans to shutter FEMA have confused state and federal emergency managers, who do not believe localized efforts would be able to replace the agency’s strong infrastructure. They said the budgets and personnel of most states would not be enough to tackle the most catastrophic disasters alone, even with a federal financial safety net.

“This is a complete misunderstanding of the role of the federal government in emergency management and disaster response and recovery, and it’s an abdication of that role when a state is overwhelmed,” a FEMA leader told CNN. “It is clear from the president’s remarks that their plan is to limp through hurricane season and then dismantle the agency.”