In the recent Frontline documentary, War on the EPA, the CEO of the Murray Energy Corporation — the largest coal mining company in the United States — brags that he had given the Trump administration a three-page action plan on rolling back environmental regulations. Less than a year into his term, the president and his officials had already completed the first page, Murray Energy Corporation’s Bob Murray says in the film.
Indeed, the administration has gone straight to work undoing environmental safeguards: reevaluating emission standards for cars and trucks, pressing for the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, disbanding science advisory committees, lifting the moratorium on federal coal leasing, trying to expand offshore drilling, and opening national monuments and marine sanctuaries to energy companies. The EPA is working to eliminate rules on the leaking and flaring of methane and has rescinded requirements for reporting methane emissions. It is also stalling on monitoring carbon pollution. And, of course, the president announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.
At the top of Murray’s wish list, Frontline repor... Read more
