Public Health
The War on Public Health Continues
Friday’s layoffs announcements at CDC targeted infectious disease control
During the COVID outbreak, President Trump said, “If we stopped testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.” That philosophy seems to have taken hold during his second term in office. On Friday, the Administration fired more than a thousand CDC workers, incljding the scientists and doctors who provide key information and expertise about infectious disease outbreaks. The effect is to kneecap the government’s capacity to detect and track outbreaks.
CONTINUE READINGThe Compact for Censorship
The so-called compact is a thin front for massive incursion into free speech and academic freedom.
A key First Amendment principle prohibits the government from discriminating on the basis of viewpoint. This Compact contains a string of viewpoint-based rules. That’s a threat to any view the government doesn’t like, which definitely includes a belief in climate change or the benefits of renewable energy. Because violation of the agreement triggers draconian sanctions, and the Administration is the judge of what constitutes a violation, the chilling effect will be tremendous.
CONTINUE READINGIn His Own Words: The Unitary Executive Explains Science Stuff to Us
Inside the government, the war on science seems to be over, and ignorance has won.
In the past couple of days, the President has given us the benefit of his wisdom on highly technical issues. It seems clear that, as far as the government is concerned, the war on science is over, and ignorance has won.
I’m going to let the President make my case for me. Below are excerpts of Trump’s explanations of vaccine policy, autism causation, and climate science.
CONTINUE READINGThe War on Science: Week 35
Every week we get more reports about the Administration’s anti-science campaign.
It was just another week in the government’s war on science. Rather than editorialize about what’s going on, I thought it would be more useful just to relay what has come out in news reports over the last week. The facts really speak for themselves.
ITEM. On Saturday, we learned that EPA’s water division had told its scientists to pause publication of papers in scientific journals pending a “review.” The order came from political appointees. There’s little doubt that the goal is to silence scientific findings that might call Administration policies into question.
CONTINUE READINGA Clear and Present Danger to American Health
We’re all – each of us individually — less safe than we were a year ago.
RFK Jr. is purging the government of anyone who actually believes in science. What’s happening to public health under his leadership isn’t unique. All across the government, Trump is at war with science, cancelling billions of dollars of biomedical, energy, and climate research; closing EPA’s science department; replacing hard scientific evidence with climate denial as official dogma. This is a recipe for disaster, like closing your eyes will flying a plane.
CONTINUE READINGThe Failed Effort to Protect Workers from Toxics: A Labor Day Reflection
The OSHA law called for rigorous regulation. It never happened.
To put it in a nutshell, the political base for workplace toxic regulation eroded along with America’s industrial unions. That deprived OSHA of the congressional support it needed to thrive. In the absence of a union revival, the right of workers to be free from toxic hazards is likely to remain an unfulfilled dream.
CONTINUE READINGHow to Dissent? Learn American History
LA Public Library
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It sounds cliché, but when you face a crisis, it helps to remember times that you’ve overcome adversity. That’s the power of history. And it’s one of the reasons I think the new PBS documentary “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog” is crucial to share right now. In the 1940s, dark, smoky clouds crept …
Continue reading “How to Dissent? Learn American History”
CONTINUE READING“Hi, Can you Hear Me?” A CPUC Debrief
The California Public Utilities Commission heard an earful about neighborhood decarbonization. Here’s the input from Californians who support climate action.
More people who want climate action should attend public forums like the ones that the California Public Utilities Commission held last Thursday regarding the selection of neighborhood decarbonization projects. More of us should sit on these calls and sign up to speak. Even if we aren’t party to a specific proceeding or don’t feel expert …
Continue reading ““Hi, Can you Hear Me?” A CPUC Debrief”
CONTINUE READINGWhy is EPA at War with Its Own Employees?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
While many of us prepared to celebrate Independence Day last week, a group of employees from the Environmental Protection Agency were bravely speaking out about what they see as their boss “recklessly undermining the EPA mission” of protecting human health and the environment. In a now-infamous letter sent to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, hundreds of …
Continue reading “Why is EPA at War with Its Own Employees?”
CONTINUE READINGModernizing Air Permitting in California
Guest Contributor Craig Segall writes that SB 318 would help clean up factories and other big industrial sources by pulling permitting practices into this century.
Almost every major industrial and power facility in California needs an air permit when it’s built or renovated. That’s a huge opportunity to rapidly advance the zero and near-zero technologies that Congress invested in in the Inflation Reduction Act, and that we urgently need to meet ever-more-pressing air quality challenges, especially as attacks from the …
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