XPost: seattle.forsale.misc, seattle.general, or.general   
   XPost: or.politics   
   From: -long@hmn.com   
      
   Trump Doesn't Value American Lives. His New Pollution Policy Is Proof   
      
      
   Feb 12, 2026 at 02:01 PM EST   
      
   With the Trump administration plunging our nation into chaos and millions   
   of Americans  struggling to meet basic needs, the  president's appointees   
   at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just said the quiet part out   
   loud:  They will no longer consider the value of human life and people's   
   health.   
      
   In January, the agency's political leadership announced that, when setting   
   limits on air pollution that causes disease and early deaths, only the   
   costs for companies to comply will be considered. It's an unabashed   
   statement that brings awful clarity to the administration's priorities.   
   They're gutting protections for the air we breathe, the water we drink and   
   the future we promised our children.   
   An oil refinery complex operates along the industrial waterfront at the   
   Port of Los Angeles as stacks, towers and processing units rise above a   
   contai...   
      
   The Trump administration has already handed out passes that excuse   
   polluting industrial facilities across the U. S. from  compliance with the   
   latest Clean Air Act standards. All the corporations had to do was send an   
   email and ask.   
      
   The administration, meanwhile, is trying to crush the cleaner industries   
   that would make our country not only healthier but stronger economically.   
   As our energy prices rise, the administration is blocking new clean energy   
   projects while obstructing and delaying billions of dollars in private   
   investments in domestic manufacturing and energy security and erasing   
   hundreds of thousands of jobs and life-changing career opportunities.   
      
   Who's benefiting from these backward policies? The administration has made   
   decision after decision that will only increase our health care costs and   
   utility bills. Trump's EPA did not have our health in mind when it asked a   
   federal court to throw out stronger standards for soot that were on track   
   to spare 800,000 cases of asthma and thousands of hospital visits and   
   premature deaths. It certainly didn't make America healthier to put former   
   chemical industry lobbyists in decision-making positions at EPA. Or to   
   ignore decades of science and weaken oversight and protections for cancer-   
   causing chemicals, such as formaldehyde.   
      
   Now, the Trump administration is poised to throw out the very idea that   
   climate pollution is a threat, too.   
      
   EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's stated desire to "drive a dagger" through   
   the endangerment finding provides a chilling context for these decisions.   
   The finding is based on reams of scientific evidence demonstrating that   
   climate pollution threatens our health and safety. And the Trump   
   administration has spent a year unlawfully meeting in secret, dismissing   
   objections, downplaying suffering and mischaracterizing research to   
   overturn it.   
      
      
   It is another way of valuing human life at $0. It is another way of   
   communicating to the American people that what you are seeing with your own   
   eyes isn't happening.   
      
   But we are seeing it. Every part of the country has experienced the dangers   
   of extreme weather that climate pollution is making  that much more   
   destructive. Farmers have lost their livestock and livelihoods to heat   
   waves. During Winter Storm Fern, hundreds of thousands of Americans went   
   without power in freezing temperatures.   
      
   In 2025, the Guadalupe River in Texas was overwhelmed by flash flooding   
   that killed 27 girls and counselors at Camp Mystic. Hurricane Helene in   
   2024 was the deadliest storm in the U. S. since Katrina. It killed 11   
   members of the same family in North Carolina. "Everything where I grew up   
   is gone, " one survivor said.   
      
   It's time to share the truth. It's time to tell everyone what's happening.   
   Every image of a home charred to the foundation by an accelerated fire,   
   every sodden pile of ruined furniture and stuffed animals waiting at the   
   curb to be hauled away after another flood—not to mention mountains of data   
   from satellites to ice cores to temperature records—is irrefutable evidence   
   that the story the administration wants to tell just doesn't match the   
   facts.   
      
   Amanda Leland is executive director of Environmental Defense Fund.   
      
   Abigail Dillen is president of Earthjustice.   
      
   Manish Bapna is president and CEO of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense   
   Council).   
      
   Loren Blackford is executive director of the Sierra Club.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)