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Backyard Talk

The Numbers are OUT: Top polluters paid NO TAXES in 2019!

By Gustavo Andrade, Organizing Director
The numbers are out on the Trump tax cuts, and some of them are staggering: Top polluting companies paid nothing (!) in taxes on billions of dollars of profits last year. According to a new report issued recently by the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP, itep.org) a total of 91 corporations paid ZERO taxes in 2019. 
Here are some notable examples, along with a rounded estimate of their profits in 2018:
Taxes
You can find the report here: Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law
If you find this new information shocking, well, so do we! At a time when resources to investigate and treat pollution-related illnesses throughout the country are so scarce, the very people responsible aren’t even paying in their fair share. 
These big polluters are just some of the 91 companies who didn’t pay taxes last year. Others mentioned in the report include giants like IBM, Facebook, Eli Lilly and others. Check it out for yourself at: https://itep.org/corporate-tax-avoidance-in-the-first-year-of-the-trump-tax-law/

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Report on the health and safety of children

The Union of Concerned Scientist has released a report and storybook on the impact of current regulation rollbacks on the health and safety of children. A decrease in science-based research within the legislative process has put children at greater risk from exposure to toxic chemicals, including PFAS, lead, pesticides, asbestos and more.
Endangering Children Report
Breathe in the Smog, Drink the Lead Storybook
Protecting Children’s Health and Safety Resource Guide

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Where is the fund in Superfund going?

President Trump has asked Congress on Monday to reduce the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget on Superfund. The Administration has created the largest backlog of cleanups in over 15 years, and now plans to reduce the Superfund Program’s budget by 10%. The Superfund is just one of many environmental programs that could receive budget cuts for the fiscal year 2021. Read More.

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President Trump Rolls Back Pollution Regulations on Streams and Wetlands

On Thursday, January 23rd, the Trump Administration finalized the removal of the “Waters of the United States” regulations set in place during the Obama Administration. The removal of the 2015 rules was highly backed by the coal and farm sectors, that can now dump pollutants such as pesticides and fertilizers directly into waterways. Trump’s new water rule, the “Navigable Water Protection Rule,” will still protect larger bodies of water, including the Chesapeake Bay and the Mississippi River, but will reduce the protection of smaller water systems that could still sweep pollutants into those larger systems. Read More. 

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EPA rolls back chemical plant safety regulations

The EPA finalized a rule  relieving chemical plant facilities from some of the major safety regulation set by the chemical disaster rule. The EPA explained in their press release Thursday that the updated rule will no longer require facilities to consider safer technology alternatives. In combination with other regulation easements, the update is expected to save American $88 million a year. However, groups are not as convinced that the change will keep chemical plant employees and surrounding communities safe. Read More. 

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Trump administration restricting science in regulation

The Trump Administration is preparing to bring forth a new rule that will significantly limit the amount of scientific and medical research used in the process of establishing public health regulations. The EPA has presented a new proposal, named Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science, that will require scientists to disclose all raw data collected in a public health study. This will make new and existing air and water regulations more difficult to introduce or modify, because most public health studies rely on health information recovered through confidentiality agreements and cannot be disclosed publicly. Read More.

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Superfund Program Under the Trump Administration Report

The Center for Health, Environment & Justice has established a report on the U.S. EPA’s Superfund Program Under the Trump Administration. CHEJ has closely followed Superfund under President Trump since he made the program a central part of his EPA. The findings presented in the report conclude that President Trump has targeted Superfund sites with majority white communities, medium income communities and where there are deep corporate pockets to pay for cleanup. Further, the Trump administration has cut Superfund funding to a new low. To continue funding, Representative Blumenauer (D-OR) has proposed the Superfund Reinvestment Act (H.R. 4088).
Superfund Program Under the Trump Administration Report
Superfund Program Under the Trump Administration News Release
Superfund Reinvestment Act (H.R. 4088)
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Former pollution advisory group will continue to meet as normal

Next month, the former particulate matter advisory group will meet publicly to continue their work studying the effects of air pollution on human health, despite having been fired by the Trump administration a year ago. The group will convene at the same location it met last year to discuss the 21 million Americans that are subjected to adverse health effects from air pollution and pollution from fossil fuels. This is not the first time a group has reassembled to discuss environmental concerns despite dismissal from Trump’s EPA. Scientists and environmental experts are continuing to meet to fight for the health and safety of Americans suffering as a result of industrial pollution. Read More.

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Trump administration proposes new pipeline protesting punishments

The Trump administration has proposed legislation that will make any act “inhibiting the operation” of a gas or oil pipeline punishable for up to 20 years in prison. Current federal law already makes any attempt or action of damaging or destroying a pipeline punishable by prison. The administration now wants to expand on current legislation to any pipeline opposition that prohibits the productivity in construction of a pipeline. Some states have already been enforcing such strict laws on protesters; however, environmental activists question if the law is an encroachment on First Amendment rights. Read More.

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Water News

Making America’s Waters Burn Again

The Trump administration’s new Dirty Water Rule seeks to strip the Clean Water Act’s protections from an overwhelming number of our waterways and return our water to levels of pollution we last saw before the Clean Water Act’s enactment in 1972.
 
Read More.