Trump: Make America Polluted Again

The Trump administration's planned rollback of
emissions standards could reintroduce acid rain,
create more smoggy days and cost us money
Make America Polluted Again! 

 Back in the bad old days in the 1970s and 1980s, the rain and snow coming into Vermont was so acidic from pollution that many of those stunted but old evergreen trees on the highest elevations of the Green Mountains were dying.  

Thanks to 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act that limited nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, the rain became less acidic. It took years but those high elevation evergreens are recovering nicely. 

The problem isn't entirely solved. Our lakes in Vermont are still acidic, and the pH of the rain is still a little on the low side. But things are definitely better. 

Or maybe not. 

In his infinite wisdom, President Donald Trump wants to aggressively roll back pollution controls. 

Per the Guardian:

"The U.S. could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration's rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned."

That scientist, Gene Likens, first identified acidic rainwater back in the 1960s.

Likens explained:

"I'm very worried that might happen, it's certainly not impossible that it could happen,' Likens, 90, told the Guardian. Likens is still involved in a long-term monitoring project stretching back to 1976, to sample rainwater for acidity but this program has just had its funding cut by the Trump administration."

Well, of course it has.

The 1990 legislation turned the battle against acid rain into a success story. "If the Trump administration  starts releasing controls on emissions we are going to destroy that success story," Likens said. 

The Guardian tells us what's at stake.

"The plan by the EPA to eliminate or weaken 31 regulations, a move called a 'dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion,' by the agency's administrator, Lee Zeldin, risks many thousands of extra deaths and litany of heart, lung and other illnesses, according to the EPA's own estimates of the rules' benefits."

Overall, Trump has tried to stop clean energy develop and resurrect coal, which is the dirtiest of fossil fuels. 

Coal was one of the biggest culprits in causing acid rain. Although Trump wants a lot of coal plants, market forces might not allow Trump's dream of coal burning industries everywhere. 

Much of Trump's agenda is just to make his billionaire friends even richer. But MAGA also has an anti-intellectual mindset that thinks anyone who is quote, unquote "smart" as suspect. 

"There's a viewpoint now that scientists are the bad guys, that the science is corrupt - things that just aren't true"," said Richard Peltier, an environmental scientist at the University of Massachusetts.

AUTO EMISSIONS

A big centerpiece of Trump's anti-environment agenda is to roll back auto emissions standards. Which of course leads to more air pollution. That wouldn't be the only thing we'd suffer. 

Like Trump's tariffs, the emissions standards rollback could well cost you and me even more money, as Fast Company reports. 

Chris Harto, a senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports who focuses on energy efficiency, explains it to Fast Company which wrote: 

"Under Biden the EPA enacted the emissions standard and the Department of Transportation enacted fuel economy standards. Both help clean up combustion vehicles -and both are in Trump's crosshairs, as the standards were created in coordination with each other. Making vehicles more efficient, Harto explains, comes with the 'very fortunate side benefit of making the vehicles cheaper to fuel.'

Those combined rules, a Consumer Reports analysis found, would delivery more than $2 trillion in consumer fuel savings by 2050. 'That's a massive amount of money that's at stake,' Harto says." 

We all want to save money, but we really do need to circle back to air pollution, and perhaps even more importantly, climate change. 

Fast Company again: 

"Speaking to reporters, Trump said that the new auto emissions standards don't 'mean a damn bit of difference for the environment but 'make it impossible for people to build cars.'

Harto contests both claims. The Consumer Reports analysis also found that by 2050, the auto emissions standards would reduce pollution by 12 billion tons. 'It's the single most impactful piece of climate regulation that the U.S, has even put in place,' he said."

 But, of course the Trump team is MAPA: Make American Polluted Again.