As the world grapples with multiple climate-related disasters, an environmental group in Washington is pressing the Biden administration to take more aggressive action to cut US emissions.
A report issued by the Revolving Door Project (Project Revolving Door), of a liberal nature, includes a wide range of actions that the group believes that President Joe Biden can launch by decree, which would not require the cooperation of legislators now focused on the mid-term elections. .
This week’s news reflects the challenges facing the planet.
In Pakistan, catastrophic flooding have displaced tens of thousands of people and wiped out crops, a powerful typhoon recently dumped a meter of rain on South Korea, China is experiencing its worst heat wave on record, and the drought in the western US is already historical.
The report focuses on steps that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could take, but also mentions actions for other departments, such as Justice and Defense, not regularly associated with climate change issues.
“Every government agency should think hard about how to take climate change into account in what they do, how to incorporate it into their mandates… and think and act very creatively and aggressively on this issue,” he told the Times. voice of america Max Moran, director of research at Revolving Door Project and one of the authors of the report.
The report urges the EPA to be more aggressive in penalizing corporations that violate environmental regulations, arguing that what the agency generally does is allow companies to hire their own auditors, which will ensure future compliance. or financing of projects that have nothing to do with the damage they have caused.
It also recommends multiple avenues to monitor compliance with regulations for the most damaging pollutant emissions, such as methane.
For the Department of the Interior, the report proposes to reduce emissions by covering abandoned oil and gas wells. Although the old wells do not provide economic benefits, they still emit thousands of tons of methane into the environment each year, and covering them would reduce that volume.
In addition, the Interior should suspend leasing federal land to energy companies for new fossil fuel extraction operations and reform mining regulations to reduce environmental damage, such as water source degradation and chemical runoff. toxic.
The Justice Department, the report says, is not aggressive enough to prosecute criminal violations of environmental laws.
“Environmental litigation is key to ensuring that companies and individuals comply with environmental laws. Without the threat of lawsuits, the laws that protect ecosystems and public health are ineffective,” she maintains.
There are reasons to believe that the Biden Administration is prepared to issue more decrees than in its first year and a half of its administration. For much of that time, Biden tried to negotiate sweeping environmental legislation with Congress, but the executive’s actions ran into more stumbling blocks than expected in the legislature.
Now, however, withApproval of the Inflation Reduction Lawwhich includes the largest investments in history in clean energy and other environmental programs, the likelihood of new laws is unlikely in the short term.
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