You just know that if these guys could figure out a way to do it they would erase the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (along with CAFE standards). Instead they are doing what they can to gut these laws, weaken the rules drawn up under these laws, and hollow out the Environmental Protection Agency without actually eliminating it. Here, from Timothy Cama at The Hill, is one of the latest elements of that process:
The Trump administration is proposing to scrap an Obama administration rule that increased penalties for automakers who violate fuel efficiency standards by more than 150 percent.
The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) implemented the higher penalties under former President Obama in 2016, though they weren’t due to take effect until the 2019 model year.
The regulation was an attempt to implement a 2015 law mandating that federal agencies update their penalties to align with inflation, going back years.
Now, NHTSA says the previous administration misinterpreted the 2015 law, and it doesn’t apply to fines under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. [...]
The decision comes days before the Trump administration is likely to take the first step toward potentially dialing back the efficiency rules. [...]
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
“Congress adopted most of our recommendations. But this bill—as big as this bill is—still falls short, because we just could not get the Congress to carry out the requests we made of them. I asked for the national registration of all guns and the licensing of those who carry those guns. For the fact of life is that there are over 160 million guns in this country—more firearms than families. If guns are to be kept out of the hands of the criminal, out of the hands of the insane, and out of the hands of the irresponsible, then we just must have licensing. If the criminal with a gun is to be tracked down quickly, then we must have registration in this country. The voices that blocked these safeguards were not the voices of an aroused nation. They were the voices of a powerful lobby, a gun lobby, that has prevailed for the moment in an election year.”
~President Lyndon B. Johnson, from his comments on signing the Gun Control Act of 1968
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2010—Insurers Say They Don't Have to Cover Sick Kids Yet:
The NYT's Robert Pear continues coverage of the key story coming out of last week's passage and signing of health insurance reform: the contention by insurers that a key part of the law that is supposed to take effect immediately will not. That is, they are asserting that the provision that prevents them from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions--intended to begin with policies that begin on or after Sept. 23, 2010--doesn't do that at all.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Trump fires the VA Secretary. That is, he tweeted the name of a new one. Shulkin had a pretty good idea why it happened, though. Greg Dworkin pokes around in poll results in our great, new Civiqs feature. Sen. Schatz abandons D hand-wringing over "pay-fors."
RadioPublic|LibSyn|YouTube|Patreon|Square Cash (Share code: Send $5, get $5!)