Forthcoming rollbacks on environmental protection are an absolute certainty with Republican control in Congress and with President-elect Donald Trump’s statements. It’s a guarantee that Big Business’ concerns will try to dilute clean-air and clean-water safety standards.
Obama is still president for more than two months, and in that time we must encourage him to push for the broadest swath of environmental protection yet.
Obama should do everything he can to guard against the erosion of his own work in preserving the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Clean Power Plan.
However, he must also strengthen what he’s floundered over: The Dakota Access Pipeline should not be rerouted, but disposed of altogether; bee-killing neonicotinoids should not be regulated, but outright banned; uranium mining in the Grand Canyon should not be postponed, but eliminated entirely by enacting the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument.
Obama, your job is not over yet.
Risa Nagel, Seattle