Environmental Integrity Project

Although the Trump Administration's war on Iran was not authorized by Congress, President Trump is using it as a pretext to invoke a wartime law and provide subsidies and support to his allies in the U.S. petroleum industry. The White House recently released a memo saying the President is using the Defense Production Act of 1950 to increase domestic petroleum production. We talk about the implications of this with Tyson Slocum, Director of the Energy Program at Public Citizen. Among other things, the Trump Administration is using the Korean War- era law to try to override the opposition of California and re-open a pipeline near Santa Barbara that has been closed since a massive oil spill in 2015.

Wetlands are miracles of nature. They work as the world’s kidneys, filtering and cleaning our water. Wetlands capture carbon dioxide more effectively than even forests and act as cradles of life for biodiversity, sheltering many endangered species. Despite all this, the Trump Administration on November 17 proposed regulations that would strip federal protections from more than 80 percent of wetlands across the U.S., leaving more than 70 million acres of wetlands vulnerable to development. We discuss the issue with Jon Devine, Director of Freshwater Ecosystems at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

On this week's podcast we interviewed EIP's visiting scientist, Dr. Kimberly Terrell. Facing a gag order imposed on her by Tulane University leadership because her study on racial discrimination in petrochemical industry jobs reportedly angered Louisiana’s governor, Dr. Terrell faced a new decision - remain silent and sacrifice her scientific integrity, or resign in protest, speaking out publicly about an important issue and shining a light on the pressure campaign to keep her silent.

The $4 trillion Republican spending bill, signed by President Trump on July Fourth, is packed with giveaways to the oil and gas industry. These include tax breaks, opening more public lands and offshore acres to drilling, and a lowering of royalty rates that oil and gas companies must pay for extracting fuel from government lands. Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful” bill is also full of ugly ironies, including this one: While Trump campaigned on lowering energy prices for consumers, his spending bill is expected to raise average household energy costs by about $280 per year, in part because it slashes support for wind and solar, which are some of the cheapest forms of energy. To break down all the handouts to the fossil fuel industry, we interview Josh Axelrod, senior program advocate at NRDC. (Photo by iStock)

State legislatures are seeing a wave of industry-backed bills that would ban or restrict the public’s ability to test for air pollution in local communities. Last year, the Louisiana legislature effectively banned community groups from using their own air monitoring to warn residents about pollution or publicly advocate for cleanups. Violators can face penalties of up to $32,500 per day, plus $1 million for intentional violations. Earlier this year, Kentucky passed legislation that attempts to restrict what evidence state and local environmental regulators can use when enforcing pollution regulations. Morgan King, climate and energy program manager with the West Virginia Citizen Action Group, joins us to discuss her work building up an air monitoring network around West Virginia, where industry-backed legislation to restrict monitoring has failed twice over the last two years.