Rebuilding in 2021: Friends of Animals Works to Undo Legacy of Harm
From All-Creatures.org Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies Articles Archive
In total, more than 70 environmental and wildlife
protections have been reversed and 30 were in progress at press time... FoA
has been pushing back and will continue to work to safeguard species,
ecosystems and biodiversity.
Americans are going to the polls in a few weeks to vote and whatever the
outcome, there is significant work ahead for Friends of Animals. The past
four years have brought an unrelenting rollback in protections for wildlife
and habitats.
From efforts to weaken protections for threatened and endangered species,
promotion of energy exploration on public lands and expansion of hunting, to
loosening restrictions on pesticides, FoA has been pushing back and will
continue to work to safeguard species, ecosystems and biodiversity.
The most abominable actions by the Environmental Protection Agency,
Department of Interior, National Park Service and the Department of Energy
include weakening the Endangered Species Act to make it easier to remove
animals and allow for economic impacts to be factored into listing decisions
and diluting the National Environmental Policy Act by limiting public review
to speed up infrastructure projects such as pipelines and highways.
In total, more than 70 environmental and wildlife protections have been
reversed and 30 were in progress at press time.
See some of the most egregious wrongs we will be trying to right in the new
year:
WILDLIFE AND HABITAT PROTECTION
- Migratory Bird Treaty Act
Removed incentives to protect birds by allowing businesses to no longer
be accountable if their actions cause bird deaths. The changes were
challenged in court and a federal judge struck them down.
- Drilling in the Arctic
The 2017 tax reform act allows for oil exploration in the pristine
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the first time since it was set
aside for protection in 1960. The Refuge consists of more than 19
million acres of wild lands that is home to polar bears and caribou.
- Hunting in the Arctic
Policy changes finalized by the National Park Service allow baiting
bears with food, killing bears and cubs while they hibernate and
shooting wolves and coyotes while denning with their pups.
- U.S. Wildlife Refuge System
The Department of Interior expanded hunting into a record 4 million
acres of refuge lands nationwide, the biggest expansion in the agency’s
history despite a historic decline in the number of hunters in the
country. In addition, DOI reversed the ban on lead ammo and fishing
tackle on wildlife refuges.
- Marine Sanctuaries
Expanded commercial fishing and energy exploration in sanctuaries that
protect more than one million square miles of ocean life, opening such
areas as Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off
the coast of New England.
- Sage-Grouse Protections
Allow drilling and oil leasing that threaten protections of the
sagebrush and grassland Sage-Grouse. Known for their dramatic mating
dance, Sage-Grouse are an umbrella species who indicate the health of
the habitat they share with hundreds of other wildlife.
- Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Protection
Eased restrictions of fishing that imperil tuna, who are subject to
threats from accidental catches by commercial fishing vessels.
- Whales, Dolphins, Sea Turtles
The National Marine Fishers Service withdraws limits to bycatch of
whales, dolphins and sea turtles who get caught in large gillnets used
in the commercial fishing of shark and swordfish.
- National Monuments
Reduced historic landmarks and prehistoric structures such as Bears
Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah and Cascade-Siskiyou in Oregon
and California to open the lands for grazing, logging, mineral and
energy extraction and nuclear production.
- Public Land Grazing
Bureau of Land Management overhauls grazing regulations allowing for the
automatic continuation of expired grazing permits or leases and excludes
livestock transport decisions from environmental review. The farming and
ranching industry has the run of 155 million acres of public lands in
the U.S. at the expense of wild horses who BLM continues to round up
with the false notion that they are overpopulated.
- Minerals and Mining
Executive order from President Trump directs mineral oversight agencies
to expedite environmental reviews and remove obstacles to mineral
extraction activities.
- Plastic Waste
National Parks Service ends ban on plastic bottles sales in national
parks.
CLEAN WATER AND COASTLINES
- Clean Water Rule
The Army Corps of Engineers and EPA finalized a rule reducing the amount
of waterways and wetlands protected by the Clean Water Act, opening them
up for development.
- Stream Protection Rule
Rule that prevented coal companies from dumping mining debris into local
streams is revoked.
- Water Quality Certification
The EPA weakens the Clean Water Act with a change in the certification
process limiting state authority over water quality certifications. The
original process ensured that water quality could still maintain plant,
animal and human life following discharges into waterways from power
plants such as coal plants.
- Coastal Barrier Resources Sand Policy
The Department of the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor reverses a
section of the policy to allow for sand from a protected area to be used
to replenish projects outside it, jeopardizing wildlife and habitat in
the protected region.
- Fracking
BLM in 2017 rescinds a rule that protects drinking water, no longer
requiring the disclosure of chemicals used in fracking.
- Offshore Energy Development
A 2017 executive order by President Trump reverses the withdrawal of 3.8
million acres of U.S. outer continental shelf from oil and drilling and
instructs the DOI to consider lease sales in in the Central and Western
Gulf of Mexico, Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet, the Mid-Atlantic,
and the South Atlantic.
- National Ocean Policy
Executive order by President Trump requires a focus on economic growth
over preserving the health of waterways.
CLIMATE AND AIR
- National Environmental Policy Act
White House revokes guidance on how agencies should address greenhouse
gases in reviews and changed key definitions of what constitutes a
“major federal action” to exclude projects from review and reduce the
types of alternatives that could be considered.
- Methane Waste Prevention
The Bureau of Land Management rescinds the bulk of the waste prevention
rule that was aimed at reducing the venting and flaring of methane
during oil and gas extraction and new EPA methane rules eliminate
federal requirements that oil and gas companies must install technology
to detect and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelines and storage sites.
- Fossil Fuels
At a time when the country should be moving away from fossil fuels
dependency and looking to alternative energy, the Trump administration
announced in 2017 it would be pulling out of the international Paris
Climate Accords and pushed forward with oil development. BLM released
plans in June 2020 opening more than 80 percent of the National
Petroleum Reserve to leasing.
- Fuel Efficiency Standards
Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas but EPA weakened
fuel economy and emissions standards allowing for less gallons per mile
than previously required.
- Energy Efficiency Standards
EPA rolls back requirements for energy efficient standards for a wide
variety of appliances.
- Logging and Alaska Roadless Rule
The U.S. Forest Service’s draft Environmental Impact Study approves the
option of lifting all road rule restrictions in the 16.7 million-acre
Tongass National Forest in Alaska to promote logging. The temperate
forest is one of the most pristine old-growth regions in the world and
it helps sequester carbon dioxide, keeping climate warming gasses out of
the atmosphere.
- Hazardous Air Pollutants
EPA issues a new guidance memorandum in 2018 weakening pollution control
technology requirements for major sources of hazardous air pollution.
- Clean Power Plan
EPA repeals the Clean Power Plan, which was implemented to reduce carbon
emissions and meet international climate commitments to lower emissions
from the power sector.
- Release of Hazardous Substances
EPA exempts reporting to the public of toxic air emissions from factory
farming animal waste. These emissions from industrial farms impact air
and water quality.
- Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
EPA issues new standards to allow power plants to release higher amounts
of acid gas and SO2 emissions.
- Coal
The Bureau of Land Management resumes federal coal leasing, –lifting an
Obama-era moratorium — finding that there’d be no significant
environment impact. Additionally, EPA proposed changes to coal ash
regulations modifying the requirement that companies and utilities had
to prove that a deposit of recycled coal ash wouldn’t harm the
environment.
- Clean Air Act
An EPA memo weakens the good neighbor provisions in the act allowing for
higher amounts of ozone pollution from upwind states.
- Ethanol Fuel Ban
EPA lifts summertime ban on ethanol gasoline blends that was aimed at
reducing smog.
- Pipeline Permits
Permitting process for projects including oil pipelines that cross
international borders are moved from the State Department to the
President’s office, exempting them from environmental review.
- National Parks
National Parks Service rescinds a 2016 order that called for a focus on
climate change in managing natural resources in U.S. parks
- Clean Climate Fund
Stopped contributions to a United Nations fund that helped poor
countries reduce carbon emissions and prepare for the impacts of climate
change.
PESTICIDES & CHEMICAL POLLUTANTS
- Chemical Disaster Rule
Rules to strengthen protections of chemical facility accidents were put
on hold by the EPA and then weakened in a 2019 policy change.
- Chlorpyrifos
EPA aborts plans to ban chlorpyrifos, a highly toxic organophosphate
used on crops and golf courses, despite evidence revealing serious
health and ecological risks.
- Heavy Metals
Exempted the electronics byproduct copper filter cake from the hazardous
waste list
(Source: Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program,
Columbia Law School Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, The New York
Times.)
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