dstieger wrote:I'm not familiar with any specific regulations being rolled back. You make some demonstrative claims with no specificity.
I have no doubt there exist some possibility that the environment MIGHT be negatively affected. What are the specific negative potential effects that you're concerned about? And, what is the expected economic impact of actual changes?
As much as I am an Ayn Rand devotee, I acknowledge that totally unregulated business will probably have a pizzpoor outcome for society. But, I still advocate for reasoned analysis for each regulation/deregulation based on sound science and best data available. Simply saying that 'deregulation....will create an invitation to operate without regard for potential damage' is a bit irresponsible...or maybe just lazy.
I'll give you a personal example. I live in SoCal...grew up before the advent of the AQMD and the EPA. Air quality here was among the worst in the world...many people burned their trash in backyard incinerators when I was a kid. Cars' exhaust was not regulated. There were many days when school was cancelled and the public health administrator ordered parents to keep their kids inside. There was a brown haze just about every day. There were only about 10 - 15 million people in CA and 2 - 2.5 M in LA county in the 50's-60's. I was diagnosed with asthma then, likely due to breathing the air. Asthma is a very common disease among people living in SoCal.
Air quality standards emerged from the Clean Air Act of 1963, the first national regulation seeking to control air quality standards. Progressive amendments, in 1967, 1970, 1977 and 1990 resulted in the scrubbing of the air in the SoCal basin and throughout the US. There's still some haze on most days here, and LA still has some of the smoggiest air in the US, but the level of harmful pollutants is drastically reduced, even though the LA county population has gone up to more than 10 M, and more than 40M in CA.
Reducing emissions from industry and from vehicles achieved a healthier air quality throughout SoCal and the entire state. USC did a study on improved health benefits of cleaner LA air.
https://keck.usc.edu/southern-californias-reduction-in-smog-linked-to-major-improvement-in-childrens-respiratory-
health/
According to a study by the RAND Org., improved air quaility leads to economic growth.
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR200/RR260/RAND_RR260.pdf
So, when Trump's administration directed the EPA to roll back clean air standards, I will be impacted.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-trump-air-quality-20180412-story.html
the opening paragraphs of that article:
"President Trump took aim at federal air quality standards Thursday, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to relax restrictions on state governments and businesses that have been key to cutting smog.
In a memo, the president instructed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to more quickly review states' smog-reduction plans, make it easier for businesses to get air quality-related permits and to evaluate health-based smog and soot standards to determine whether they "should be revised or rescinded," among other directives."