Deregulation risks our children’s health

Stock market up! Unemployment down! New jobs created!

Economists do credit part of this positive economic news to POTUS. No one likes to be bogged down with a lot of regulations, so the president’s penchant for deregulation has been a boon to business.

But, then again, clean air and water are necessary to the health and safety of our children, aren’t they?

Despite consensus that children should be protected, POTUS revoked a rule that prevented coal mining companies from dumping debris into local streams, canceled the requirement to report methane emissions, lifted a freeze on new coal leases on public lands, rejected a ban on a potentially harmful insecticide, withdrew guidance for federal agencies to include greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews, ordered review and “elimination” of a rule that protected tributaries and wetlands under the Clean Water Act, reopened a review of fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, rolled back limits on toxic discharge from power plants into public waterways, etc.

Recommendations for regulatory change come predominantly from business and industry. For example, according to The New York Times, Dow Agrosciences strongly opposed a risk analysis by the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency, which found that the insecticide Chlorpyrifos poses a risk to fetal brain and nervous system development.

If clean air and water are important for our survival and the survival of our children, we need to tell POTUS, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson and U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey to call a halt to risky deregulation.

This story was originally published January 28, 2018 at 10:04 PM with the headline "Deregulation risks our children’s health."