skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Would EPA Funding Cuts Assault Public Health in MN?

play audio
Play

Thursday, October 19, 2017   

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Bipartisan criticism over the Trump administration's ideas for the Environmental Protection Agency has forced several crucial committee hearings to be postponed this week.

President Donald Trump has proposed a 30 percent cut to the EPA's budget, steeper cuts than any other agency.

Aaron Klemz, communications director at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Action, says the state enforces a lot of its clean air and water standards because of the EPA.

"Minnesota gets funding from the EPA to test swimming beaches for harmful levels of bacteria,” he points out. “And if we don't have that funding, that means that when you take your kids swimming at the beach, you know, you maybe submit them to something it's really harmful or dangerous to them, without even knowing it."

Klemz says while environmental groups are worried about the impact of cuts, they are cautiously optimistic about funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which helps clean up the Great Lakes.

Trump proposed cutting it, but the House voted to restore the funding and an upcoming Senate vote will determine its fate.

Other environmental groups warn that the EPA under Administrator Scott Pruitt is appointing industry lobbyists to loosen regulations on air and water pollution.

Elgie Holstein, senior director for strategic planning at the Environmental Defense Fund, says by replacing scientists with politicians and cutting the budget, the Trump EPA poses a threat to public health.

"If enacted, the cuts would reverse decades of progress cleaning up pollution, including toxic substances that foul our drinking water, our air and our soil,” he stresses. “We will see higher cancer rates. We will see more asthma attacks. We will see more heart attacks and stroke."

The Environmental Defense Fund details its criticism in a new publication it calls "The Pruitt Playbook," on its website.

Holstein adds some states will want to address these problems on their own.

"What both the Trump budget and the House version would do is essentially put every state in the country in the position of making a Hobson's choice,” he states. “Do less to protect the public health, or bill the taxpayers more to keep up their current efforts."

But Holstein says even if states decide to pick up the EPA's slack, they likely don't have all the necessary legal and scientific know how to do it.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021