There's fantastic color along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Great Smoky Mountains this week. We found the nicest drive out of Atlanta was to ignore the GPS and take I-75 north to Georgia 5 and then take the country roads heading north toward Woodstock, Holly Springs, and Canton. We just kept heading north.
We were blessed with breezy, cool conditions and none of the smog that has become all too prevalent over the Great Smoky Mountains in recent years, as one of the year's first strong cold fronts had just blown through the region.
Like these photos?
See all the unedited photos at
Near Tate, Georgia G-5 turns into G-515 and then at Ellijay we veered off to the northeast toward Blue Ridge through the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. In my travels I have learned the real treasures are often found off the beaten path and far from modern life.
East of Blue Ridge we took US 19 north toward Murphy, North Carolina then followed US 74 along the rafting rivers between the Natahala National Forest and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This route becomes US 74/19 and eventually leads to Cherokee near Clingman's Dome (at 6,643 feet the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. . .but still a few feet shy of Mt. Mitchell, 6,684 feet, and Mt. Craig, 6,647 feet.)
Stay on US 19/74 and you'll eventually find I-40 near Asheville, North Carolina and you will have seen some of the most amazing scenery that the Smoky Mountains have to offer.
I got really annoyed with the GPS. It wants to send you along the unsightly and overcrowded interstates of South Carolina (I-85 to I-26) to get you from Atlanta to Asheville. Ignore the GPS. Turn it off and get out an old fashioned map. Those interstates are horrible, poorly maintained, and loaded with semi-trucks hauling all their crap back and forth between the large cities of the South.
Plot your own route along the stream valleys and through the foothills of the Smoky Mountains and you'll see sights like these. If you happen upon the Blue Ridge Parkway, even better. Take it in either direction and there are plenty of treasures to be found. The Parkway offers slow-paced and relaxing drives revealing stunning long-range vistas and close-up views of mountains and pastoral landscapes of the Appalachian Highlands. The Blue Ridge Parkway meanders for 469 miles through North Carolina and Virginia.
Carl Sandburg Home
National Historic Site
Outside of the tiny North Carolina town of Flat Rock one finds Connemara Farms, the Carl Sandberg National Historic Site (below).
The people's poet said he needed solitude to write, and enough distance between the house and goat barns (his wife's hobby) to keep things quiet. His wife Lilian dreamed of ample pastures for her goats and a milder climate than their Michigan home provided. They bought this 245-acre estate in the mountains and meadows of far western North Carolina and found the solitude and space for their dreams.
THE CREATIVE HUSH
Sandburg wrote of his last home that he found there
a bracing clarity of mountain air—a great stillness.
and something he liked to call
the creative hush.
We found that hush walking up the steep path from Little River Road to the house along the massive green pastures of Sandburg's 30 acre front lawn.
Below, a couple of retiring stands of Goldenrod along a pasture's fence line.
Carl Sandburg had many interests, but none fascinated him more than Abraham Lincoln. He collected, read, and pondered every scrap of information he could find about Lincoln. While working as a movie critic for the Chicago Daily News, he wrote The Prairie Years, a 344,000-word, two-volume set about Lincoln's life up to his presidency. Sandburg had become so engrossed in the subject that he left his newspaper job to pursue the subject. He increased his lecturing schedule to support the family, and devoted much of 13 years to working on Abraham Lincoln: the War Years, a 1,175,000-word, four-volume sequel for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1940.
Above: blogger (far right) exploring the hushed hills around Sandburg's house. The National Park was virtually deserted on a recent afternoon. I imagined everyone was in their cars on those polluted and crowded interstates far from this lovely, quiet spot.
In 1945 Sandburg was already 67 years old and world-famous when he resettled on this quiet hilltop in the North Carolina's mountains at Flat Rock. He brought along his wife, daughters, and grandchildren. At the time he was considered unorthodox—a poet, journalist, children's writer, political activist, lecturer, folk singer, and popular biographer.
Sandburg knew what it was like to work with his hands. He had seen his parents and other immigrants struggle to eke out a living. He held many varied jobs before becoming a newspaper writer, poet, and author.
Though rock-star-like famous in his day he never forgot his roots as he championed the everyday lives and causes of ordinary people. With his pen and his typewriter, with his poetry and prose, Sandburg recounted the thoughts and dreams of cornhuskers, butchers, bricklayers, steelworkers, stenographers, and housewives as they went about their daily American lives. To him they were America and he was their advocate.
It has been said of Carl Sandburg that in his later life he sometimes became the only passionate champion of people who did not have the words or power to speak for themselves. Carl Sandburg's voice spoke loudly to the feelings and thoughts of his fellow Americans for two-thirds of the 20th century.
After Sandburg died in 1967, Congress established his home as a National Historic Site. This is the first unit of the National Park Service created to honor an American poet.
The park service has kept Connemara Farms much as it would have been in the 1950s. The hustle of modern life is many miles away via the Greenville Highway near Hendersonville, North Carolina. Even the walk from the parking area to the house is quiet, and steep. . . up either side of lush green pastures along tree-lined, rock-walled paths.
Thankfully you won't find any corporate crap for many miles around this site. It would have surely broken Sandburg's heart to see what has become of the cities in the Smoky Mountains with all of the ubiquitous American chain restaurants, stores and other detritus of modern life that now enslaves a new generation of Americans.
The gardens are still maintained as they would have been in the 1950s.
Below: Late season okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) continues to bloom on 8-foot-tall stalks.
Below: Look closely in the center of the image for the okra fruit in this artsy shot of perhaps one of the last stalks to make it in their 2014 garden. The nights were quite cold at this elevation.
BREATHING TOKENS
Give me a quiet garret alone
Where I may sit for a few casual callers
And tell them carelessly, offhandedly,
'This is where I dirty paper.'
Thus each poet prays and dreams.
The eternal hobo asks for a quiet room
with a little paper he can dirty,
with birds who sit where he tells 'em.
At Connemara Farms there remain 5 miles (8 km) of hiking trains, two small lakes, several ponds, flower and vegetable gardens and an apple orchard.
Rock Walls
What must it mean to build these things of beauty
that one knows will last for generations?
A damned stream creates a pond.
Carl Sandburg's long road to the North Carolina mountains started on the prairies of Illinois in 1878. He was the maverick son of struggling Swedish immigrants. Above all Sandburg wanted to be known as an American.
Poet of the People
Sandburg found his literary voice, not in Paris or New York, but working in small Midwestern towns and farms , and on the streets of Chicago and Milwaukee. He loved the words of the heartland he collected on his travels, and experimented with their shapes and sounds. By the 1920s he was widely acknowledged to be a Poet of the People.
Below: The rose garden, overlooking a pasture and the Great Smoky Mountains in the distance.
Solitude
Connemara Farms
A Home for Champions
Many visitors to this barn had little idea that a world-famous writer lived nearby, for they had come here to find out about raising dairy goats. Internationally known for breeding world-record milk producers, Mrs. Sandburg managed a herd of over 200 goats here in the years of 1945-1966. Imagine how boisterous this barnyard would have been at feeding and milking time each morning and evening.
Perhaps unusual for their time, Lilian and Carl Sandburg were life-long boosters of each other's chosen work. A graduate of the University of Chicago who had taught literature and expression, Lilian recognized Carl's talent for writing and always remained his steadfast supporter.
As his fame grew, Carl made sure that Lilian's expertise in goat genetics shared the limelight with his writing in the many articles published about the Sandburgs. Her success in improving and promoting dairy goats, he often said, was due to genius, knowledge, and lighted enthusiasms.
Today a small herd of dairy goats still remains in what can only be described as goat heaven atop this quiet hill, surrounded by towering peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Halloween Spiders
Back in Florida these Halloween spiders are making my evening walks. . . difficult.
This particular specimen may be a Carolina Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinensis). I am not a spider expert but he does have the short legs and stocky body characteristic of wolf spiders.
Every night he builds an elaborate web from ground up near the front door and I walk right into the web, arms flailing, trying to get the spider off of me. He never learns that I will be going for my walk late in the evening. . .but I've now learned to carry a bright light and look for him.
As I take my evening walks (now moonless) I usually carry a big stick in front of me to catch any spiders and their webs before they attach to me. While most are not poisonous I am mildly allergic to their bites.
In these shots it does look appropriate for the season. While I would never intentionally kill the spider I wouldn't mind if he moved on.
More images of the most common SPIDERS OF FLORDA here.
And back to the Smoky Mountains. . . goofing with the camera near Craggy Gardens along the Blue Ridge Parkway. These highest elevations summits east of the Mississippi River offer spectacular views.
the highest point east of the Mississippi River at 6,578 feet. I had forgotten my gloves. It was below freezing and quite windy. But what a view! Billed as the "coldest place in the South" I would have to agree. It was quite a nice change from the heat and humidity of Florida.
So why "Mitchell?" The mountain was named after a professor at the University of North Carolina, Elisha Mitchell, who determined its height in 1835 and fell to his death at nearby Mitchell Falls in 1857, having returned to verify his earlier measurements. There is a thermometer at the top. . . a little open air shop to buy some soda or whatever (if you can feel your fingers), an observation deck, and the tomb of Professor Mitchell.
Welcome to North Carolina
Clowning around with "welcome" signs. . .
I'm pleased to report that others were lined up to do the same.
And This:
Prospects are getting younger
Could the NBA’s age limit be on its way out? In October, during an appearance on ESPN’s Mike & Mike, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that “it’s clear a change will come.” Silver indicated that he was open to working with the players’ union to potentially eliminate or at the least revise the age restriction. It was a reversal for Silver, who, as recently as 2014, made raising the league’s age minimum from 19 to 20 years old his top priority.
Almost two-thirds say this is the lowest point in U.S. history—and it's keeping a lot fo them up at night
For those lying awake at night worried about health care, the economy, and an overall feeling of divide between you and your neighbors, there’s at least one source of comfort: Your neighbors might very well be lying awake, too.
Almost two-thirds of Americans, or 63 percent, report being stressed about the future of the nation, according to the American Psychological Association’s Eleventh Stress in America survey, conducted in August and released on Wednesday, November 1, 2017. This worry about the fate of the union tops longstanding stressors such as money (62 percent) and work (61 percent) and also cuts across political proclivities. However, a significantly larger proportion of Democrats (73 percent) reported feeling stress than independents (59 percent) and Republicans (56 percent).
52 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump
OVERTURNED
1. Revoked Obama-era flood standards for federal infrastructure projects
This Obama-era rule, revoked by Mr. Trump in August, required that federal agencies protect new infrastructure projects by building to higher flood standards. Building trade groups and many Republican lawmakers opposed it as costly and burdensome.
2. Rejected a proposed ban on a potentially harmful insecticide
Dow Agrosciences, which sells the insecticide chlorpyrifos, opposed a risk analysis by the Obama-era E.P.A. that found the compound posed a risk to fetal brain and nervous system development. Mr. Pruitt rejected the E.P.A.'s analysis, arguing the chemical needed further study.
3. Lifted a freeze on new coal leases on public lands
Coal companies weren't thrilled about the Obama administration's three-year freeze pending an environmental review. Mr. Zinke, the interior secretary, revoked the freeze and review in March. He appointed members to a new advisory committee on coal royalties in September.
4. Canceled a requirement for oil and gas companies to report methane emissions
In March, Republican officials from 11 states wrote a letter to Mr. Pruitt, saying the rule added costs and paperwork for oil and gas companies. The next day, Mr. Pruitt revoked the rule.
5. Revoked a rule that prevented coal companies from dumping mining debris into local streams
The coal industry said the rule was overly burdensome, calling it part of a “war on coal.” In February, Congress passed a bill revoking the rule, which Mr. Trump signed into law.
6. Approved the Keystone XL pipeline
Republicans, along with oil, gas and steel industry groups, opposed Mr. Obama's decision to block the pipeline, arguing that the project would create jobs and support North American energy independence. After the pipeline company reapplied for a permit, the Trump administration approved it.
7. Approved the Dakota Access pipeline
Republicans criticized Mr. Obama for delaying construction after protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Mr. Trump ordered an expedited review of the pipeline, and the Army approved it. Crude oil began flowing on June 1, but a federal judge later ordered a new environmental review.
8. Prohibited funding third-party projects through federal lawsuit settlements, which could include environmental programs
Companies settling lawsuits with the federal government have sometimes paid for third-party projects, like when Volkswagen put $2.7 billion toward pollution-fighting programs after its emissions cheating scandal. The Justice Department has now prohibited such payments, which some conservatives have called “slush funds.”
9. Repealed a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans
Lobbyists for the oil industry were opposed to Mr. Obama's use of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to permanently ban offshore drilling along parts of the Atlantic coast and much of the ocean around Alaska. Mr. Trump repealed the policy in an April executive order and instructed his interior secretary, Mr. Zinke, to review the locations made available for offshore drilling.
10. Proposed the use of seismic air guns for gas and oil exploration in the Atlantic
Following a executive order in April known as the America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, the Trump administration began an application process to allow five oil and gas companies to survey the Atlantic using seismic air guns, which fire loud blasts that can harm whales, fish and turtles. The Obama administration had previously denied such permits.
11. Revoked a 2016 order protecting the northern Bering Sea region in Alaska
Mr. Trump revoked Mr. Obama’s 2016 order protecting the Bering Sea and Bering Strait by conserving biodiversity, engaging Alaska Native tribes and building a sustainable economy in the Arctic, which is vulnerable to climate change.
12. Repealed an Obama-era rule regulating royalties for oil, gas and coal
Lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry opposed 2016 Interior Department regulations meant to ensure fair royalties were paid to the government for oil, gas and coal extracted from federal or tribal land. In August, the Trump administration rescinded the rule, saying it caused “confusion and uncertainty”for energy companies.
13. Withdrew guidance for federal agencies to include greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews
Republicans in Congress opposed the guidelines, which advised federal agencies to account for possible climate effects in environmental impact reviews. They argued that the government lacked the authority to make such recommendations, and that the new rules would slow down permitting.
14. Relaxed the environmental review process for federal infrastructure projects
Oil and gas industry leaders said the permit-issuing process for new infrastructure projects was costly and cumbersome. In an August executive order, Mr. Trump announced a policy he said would streamline the process for pipelines, bridges, power lines and other federal projects. The order put a single federal agency in charge of navigating environmental reviews, instituted a 90-day timeline for permit authorizaton decisions and set a goal of completing the full process in two years.
15. Announced intent to stop payments to the Green Climate Fund
Mr. Trump said he would cancel payments to the fund, a United Nations program that helps developing countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. Mr. Obama had pledged $3 billion, $1 billion of which Congress has already paid out over the opposition of some Republicans.
16. Dropped proposed restrictions on mining in Bristol Bay, Alaska
A Canadian company sued the E.P.A. over an Obama-era plan to restrict mining in Bristol Bay, an important salmon fishery. The Trump administration settled the suit and allowed the company to apply for permits to build a large gold and copper mine in the area. Alaska Republicans, including Senator Lisa Murkowski, supported the mine.
17. Removed the Yellowstone grizzly bear from the endangered list
Noting that the species population had “rebounded from as few as 136 bears in 1975 to an estimated 700 today,” the Interior Department delisted the Yellowstone grizzly. Delisting the bears was first formally proposed by the Obama administration in March 2016.
18. Overturned a ban on the hunting of predators in Alaskan wildlife refuges
Alaskan politicians opposed the law, which prevented hunters from shooting wolves and grizzly bears on wildlife refuges, arguing that the state has authority over those lands. Congress passed a bill revoking the rule, which Mr. Trump signed into law.
19. Withdrew proposed limits on endangered marine mammals caught by fishing nets on the West Coast
Under Mr. Trump, the National Marine Fisheries Service withdrew the proposed rule, noting high costs to the fishing industry and arguing that sufficient protections were already in place.
20. Stopped discouraging the sale of plastic water bottles in national parks
The National Park Service had urged parks to reduce or eliminate the sale of disposable plastic water bottles in favor of filling stations and reusable bottles. The International Bottled Water Association called the action unjustified.
21. Rescinded an Obama-era order to consider climate change in managing natural resources in national parks
The 2016 policy, which called for scientific park management, among other objectives, was contested by Republicans. In August, the National Park Service said they rescinded the policy in order to eliminate confusion among the public and National Parks Service employees regarding the Trump administration’s “new vision” for America’s parks.
22. Revoked directive for federal agencies to mitigate the environmental impacts of projects they approve
In a March executive order, Mr. Trump revoked an Obama-era memorandum that instructed five federal agencies to “avoid and then minimize” the impacts of development on water, wildlife, land and other natural resources. The memo also encouraged private investment in restoration projects.
23. Directed agencies to stop using an Obama-era calculation of the “social cost of carbon”
As part of an expansive March 2017 executive order, Mr. Trump directed agencies to stop using an Obama-era calculation that helped rulemakers monetize the costs of carbon emissions and instead base their estimates on a 2003 cost-benefit analysis. Mr. Trump also disbanded the working group that created estimates for the social cost of carbon.
24. Revoked an update to the Bureau of Land Management's public land use planning process
Republicans and fossil fuel industry groups opposed the updated planning rule for public lands, arguing that it gave the federal government too much power at the expense of local and business interests. Congress passed a bill revoking the rule, which Mr. Trump signed into law.
25. Removed copper filter cake, an electronics manufacturing byproduct, from the “hazardous waste” list
Samsung petitioned the E.P.A. to delist the waste product, which is produced during electroplating at its Texas semiconductor facility. The E.P.A. granted the petition after a public comment period.
IN PROGRESS
26. Proposed repeal and replacement of the Clean Power Plan
Coal companies and Republican officials in many states opposed the plan, Mr. Obama’s signature climate policy, which set strict limits on carbon emissions from existing coal- and gas-fired power plants. Mr. Trump issued an executive order in March instructing the E.P.A. to re-evaluate the plan, which is tied up in court and has not yet taken effect. In October, the E.P.A. proposed repealing the plan and opened a public comment period soliciting suggested replacements.
27. Announced intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement
Arguing that it tied his hands in matters of domestic energy policy, Mr. Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris accord, under which the United States had pledged to cut emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations of its intent to withdraw, but it cannot complete the process until late 2020.
28. Proposed rescinding a rule that protected tributaries and wetlands under the Clean Water Act
Farmers, real estate developers, golf course owners and many Republicans opposed an Obama-era clarification of the Clean Water Act that extended protections over small waterways. Under Mr. Trump's direction, Mr. Pruitt released a proposal in June to roll back the expanded definition.
29. Reopened a review of fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks
Automakers said it would be difficult and costly to meet fuel economy goals they had agreed upon with the Obama administration. Under Mr. Trump, the E.P.A. and Department of Transportation have reopened a standards review for model years 2021 through 2025. The administration is also considering easing penalties on automakers who do not comply with the federal standards.
30. Recommended shrinking or modifying 10 national monuments
Republicans in Congress said the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to designate national monuments, had been abused by previous administrations. Mr. Obama used the law to protect more than 4 million acres of land and several million square miles of ocean. Mr. Trump ordered a review of recent monuments; his interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, recommended changes for 10 sites.
31. Reviewing 12 marine protected areas
As part of his April executive order aimed at expanding offshore oil and gas drilling, Mr. Trump called for a review of national marine sanctuaries and monuments designated or expanded within the past decade. In June, NOAA announced that 12 protected marine areas were under review.
32. Reviewing limits on toxic discharge from power plants into public waterways
Utility and fossil fuel industry groups opposed the rule, which limited the amount of toxic metals — arsenic, lead and mercury, among others — power plants could release into public waterways. Industry representatives said complying with the guidelines, which were to take effect in 2018, would be extremely expensive. In September, Mr. Pruitt postponed the rule until 2020.
33. Reviewing rules regulating coal ash waste from power plants
Utility industry groups petitioned to change the rule, which regulates how power plants dispose of coal ash in waste pits often located near waterways. The E.P.A. agreed to reconsider the rule.
34. Reviewing emissions standards for new, modified and reconstructed power plants
In addition to the Clean Power Plan, Mr. Trump's Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence called on the E.P.A. to review a related rule limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new, modified, and reconstructed power plants.
35. Reviewing emissions rules for power plant start-ups, shutdowns and malfunctions
Power companies and other industry groups sued the Obama administration over the rule, which asked 36 states to tighten emissions exemptions for power plants and other facilities. The E.P.A. under Mr. Trump asked the court to suspend the case while the rule undergoes review.
36. Announced plans to review greater sage grouse habitat protections
Oil and gas industry leaders called the Obama administration's plan for protecting the bird “deeply flawed” and welcomed the Interior Department review, which will reassess restrictions on energy production.
37. Announced plans to rescind water pollution regulations for fracking on federal and Indian lands
Energy companies petitioned the Bureau of Land Management to rescind the rule, which was proposed by Mr. Obama in 2015 but never enforced amid legal challenges. In July, the bureau announced plans to revoke the rule, citing Mr. Trump's "prioritization of domestic energy production."
38. Ordered review of regulations on oil and gas drilling in national parks where mineral rights are privately owned
Mr. Trump’s March executive order called for a review of Obama-era updates to a 50-year-old rule regulating oil and gas drilling in national parks with shared ownership. (Most national parks are owned solely by the government, and drilling in them is banned. In some parks, though, the government owns the surface but the mineral rights are privately held.)
39. Reviewing new safety regulations on offshore drilling
The American Petroleum Institute and other trade groups wrote to the Trump administration, raising concerns over oil rig safety regulations implemented after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. In August, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement confirmed it was moving forward with the review. Mr. Trump had ordered a review of the rules earlier in the year.
40. Ordered a review of a rule regulating offshore oil and gas exploration by floating vessels in the Arctic
As part of the expansive executive order on offshore driling, Mr. Trump called for an immediate review of a rule intended to strengthen safety and environmental standards for exploratory drilling in the Arctic. The rule, a response to the 2013 Kulluk accident in the Gulf of Alaska, increased oversight of floating vessels and other mobile offshore drilling units.
41. Proposed ending a restriction on exploratory drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Republicans have long sought to to open the Alaska refuge to gas and oil driling. In August, an Interior Department internal memo proposed lifting restrictions on exploratory seismic studies in the region, which covers more than 30,000 square miles and is home to polar bears, caribou and other Arctic animals.
42. Ordered a review of federal regulations on hunting methods in Alaska
Obama-era rules prohibited certain hunting methods in Alaska’s national preserves. They overruled state law, which had allowed hunters to bait bears with food, shoot caribou from boats and kill bear cubs with their mothers present. Alaska sued the Interior Department, claiming that the regulations affected traditional harvesting. The Trump administration ordered a review.
43. Proposed repeal of a requirement for reporting emissions on federal highways
Transportation and infrastructure industry groups opposed a measure that required state and local officials to track greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on federally funded highways. The rule took effect in September after the Trump administration's attempts to postpone it were challenged in court. But the administration formally proposed reversing the rule the next week.
44. Announced a review of emissions standards for trailers and glider kits
Stakeholders in the transportation industry opposed the Obama-era rule, which for the first time applied emissions standards to trailers and glider vehicles. They argued that the E.P.A. lacked the authority to regulate them, because their products are not motorized.
IN LIMBO
45. Reviewing a rule limiting methane emissions at new oil and gas drilling sites
Lobbyists for the oil and gas industries petitioned Mr. Pruitt to reconsider a rule limiting emissions of methane and other pollutants from new and modified oil and gas wells. A federal appeals court has ruled that the E.P.A. must enforce the Obama-era regulation while it rewrites the rule. The E.P.A. said it may do so on a “case by case” basis.
46. Put on hold rules aimed at cutting methane emissions from landfills
Waste industry groups objected to this Obama-era regulation, which required landfills to set up methane gas collection systems and monitor emissions. In May, the E.P.A. suspended enforcement of the new standards for 90 days, pending a review. Environmental groups challenged the action in court, but the delay period has since passed, throwing the status of the case into question.
47. Proposed delay of rule limiting methane emissions on public lands
The oil and gas industry opposed the rule, which required companies to control methane emissions on federal or tribal land. The House voted this year to revoke the rule, but the Senate rejected the measure, 51 to 49. The Bureau of Land Management later suspended enforcement of parts of the rule. In October, a federal court ruled that the delay was unlawful and ordered immediate enforcement. The next day, the Bureau of Land Management proposed a new delay, this time asking for public comment.
48. Delayed a lawsuit over a rule regulating airborne mercury emissions from power plants
Coal companies, along with Republican officials in several states, sued over this Obama-era rule, which regulated the amount of mercury and other pollutants that fossil fuel power plants can emit. They argued that the rule helped shutter coal plants, many of which were already compliant. Oral arguments in the case have been delayed while the E.P.A. reviews the rule.
49. Delayed a rule aiming to improve safety at facilities that use hazardous chemicals
Chemical, agricultural and power industry groups said that the rule, a response to a 2013 explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed 15 people, did not increase safety. Mr. Pruitt delayed the standards until 2019, pending a review. Eleven states are now suing over the delay.
50. Continuing review of proposed groundwater protections for certain uranium mines
Republicans in Congress came out against the 2015 rule. They said the E.P.A. had not conducted an adequate cost-benefit analysis of the rule, which regulated byproduct materials from a type of uranium mining. The Obama administration submitted a revised proposal one day before Mr. Trump was sworn into office. The Trump administration must now decide the fate of the rule.
51. Delayed compliance dates for federal building efficiency standards
Republicans in Congress opposed the rules, which set efficiency standards for the design and construction of new federal buildings. The Trump administration delayed compliance until Sept. 30, but it is unclear whether the rules are now in effect.
52. Withdrew a rule that would help consumers buy more fuel-efficient tires
The rule required tire manufacturers and retailers to provide consumers with information about replacement car tires. The tire industry opposed several aspects of the rule, but had been working with the government to refine it. The Trump administration withdrew the proposed rule in January but has not said whether it may be reinstated.
Some other rules were
reinstated after legal challenges
Environmental groups have sued the Trump administration over many of the proposed rollbacks, and, in some cases, have succeeded in reinstating environmental rules.
1. Delayed by one year a compliance deadline for new ozone pollution standards, but later reversed course
Mr. Pruitt initially delayed the compliance deadline for a 2015 national ozone standard, but reversed course after 15 states and the District of Columbia sued.
2. Delayed publishing efficiency standards for household appliances
After being sued by a number of states and environmental groups for failing to publish efficiency standards for appliances including heaters, air conditioners and refrigerators, the Trump administration released its rules on May 26.
3. Reinstated rule limiting the discharge of mercury by dental offices into municipal sewers
The E.P.A. reinstated an Obama-era rule that regulated the disposal of dental amalgam, a filling material that contains mercury and other toxic metals. The agency initially put the rule on hold as part of a broad regulatory freeze, but environmental groups sued. The American Dental Association came out in support of the rule.
No comments:
Post a Comment