I’m more surprised that it took so long (in the third year of Donald’s presidency) than that this was done.
I’ve posted on the connections from the Trump/Kushner crime syndicate to steel barons that make less profit because of some silly environmental concerns.
On 4 June, President Donald signed an Executive Order (EO) that allows federal agencies to ignore regulations from the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act on new large infrastructure projects.
At the same time, Donald’s Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a new rule that would circumvent the Clean Air Act so they can ignore public health in their cost-benefit analyses.
President Donald’s 4 June EO could be used to approve new pipelines, highways and mines.
President Donald is using an “emergency” declaration to help those “poor” owners of (amongst others) mines through the COVID-19 “pandemic”. Maybe this is another reason to keep the “pandemic” going for as long as Donald can...
Some argue that poor communities (including non-whites) will disproportionally become the victim of bypassing regulation like this. There are more stories on the environmental damage that this will cause than criticism of the Trump administration and their obvious conflict of interests.
Lauren Pagel of Earthworks Policy commented:
President Trump is exploiting a global pandemic to further marginalize voices calling for a more just and equitable society. Today's Executive Order is another example in far too long a list of how this Administration runs roughshod over our basic values: an attempt to deliberately silence people in decisions that immediately impact their lives.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/870098279/trump-waives-environmental-reviews-citing-pandemic-economic-emergency