| Dear Katy, Donald Trump wants to reverse any progress made under President Obama, regardless of the consequences. In the latest dangerous example, his administration is trying to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Water Rule – which protects drinking water for one in three Americans.1 The Clean Water Rule protects millions of miles of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands.2 Fossil fuel companies and factory farms have been fighting the rule since it became law in 2015. Now with industry shill Scott Pruitt as Trump's EPA administrator, the agency is ready to do their bidding and repeal it. The EPA must accept comments from the public whenever it considers changing a rule. And while Trump's EPA may not listen to us now, if we document widespread public opposition to their irresponsible action, we can use that later to fight them in court. Tell the EPA: Do not repeal the Clean Water Rule. Click here to submit a comment. It should come as no surprise that EPA administrator Pruitt is trying to roll back critical protections for our nation's waters. Before joining the EPA, Pruitt was a key player in 14 separate lawsuits against the EPA that attempted to roll back environmental protections, including the Clean Water Rule.3 He has deep ties to the fossil fuel industry4 and has made a career out of rejecting science.5 Trump himself has already signed orders to reverse other environmental protections, including the Stream Protection Rule6 and the Clean Power Plan.7 Pruitt even recently said, "science should not be something that's just thrown about to try to dictate policy in Washington, D.C."8 Instead, he apparently thinks polluters should dictate the rules. Unless we fight back, Pruitt will continue to reverse every environmental regulation he can get away with. Tell the EPA: Do not repeal the Clean Water Rule. Click here to submit a comment. The Clean Water Act provides crucial pollution protection for our nation's waters. The safeguards include: - Restricting sewage plants from dumping into protected waters without permits.
- Requiring facilities storing large amounts of oil to develop oil spill prevention and response plans.
- A provision that states must prepare plans to clean up protected waters that do not meet water quality standards.
- Requiring developers get approval before discharging solid material into protected waters.
- Prohibiting the discharge of radiological, chemical, or biological warfare agents, any high-level radioactive waste, or medical waste into covered waters.9
Repealing the Clean Water Rule would mean the loss of these pollution protections for the nearly 60 percent of streams in the lower 48 states that don't flow year-round – almost 2 million miles of streams.10 It also could mean the end of these protection for countless wetlands – perhaps even most of the 110 million acres in the continental United States.11 We cannot allow the Trump administration to destroy our nation's waterways without a fight. Tell EPA administrator Scott Pruitt to defend our waters. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/cleanwater?t=8&akid=24683%2E12967895%2EwpO_d2 Thanks for fighting back, Brandy Doyle, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Natasha Geiling, "RIP, Obama's Clean Water Rule," ThinkProgress, June 27, 2017.
- Ibid.
- The New York Times, "Pruitt v. EPA: 14 challenges of EPA rules by the Oklahoma Attorney General," Jan. 14, 2017.
- Ben Jervey,"Mapping EPA Nominee Scott Pruitt's Many Fossil Fuel Ties," DeSmogBlog, Jan. 13, 2017.
- Jeff Goodell, "Scott Pruitt's crimes against nature," Rolling Stone, July 27, 2017.
- Devin Henry, "Trump signs bill undoing Obama coal mining rule," The Hill, Feb. 16, 2017.
- Tatiana Schlossberg, "What to know about Trump's order to dismantle the clean power plan," The New York Times, March 27, 2017.
- Emma Foehringer Merchant, "Scott Pruitt doesn't want to politicize science?," Grist, Aug. 11, 2017.
- Jon Devine, "Trump's attack on clean water: What you need to know," Natural Resources Defense Council, June 27, 2017.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
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