Folks, we truly live in an upside down world.
Up is down and down is up.
So everytime you hear a liberal try to lecture us on the environment, I always take it with a healthy grain of salt.
In other words, this:
So now let’s advance the story to California, where they claim so smugly (or is that smog-ly?) that they’re so environmentally friendly.
Yet it turns out, they’re the worst offender of all 50 states — by a factor of TWO!
“Since the 1970s, California has failed to carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act,” Wheeler wrote in the letter. “California has the worst air quality in the United States, with 82 non-attainment areas and 34 million people living in areas that do not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards — more than twice as many people as any other state in the country.”
And President Trump is now threatening to completely revoke their federal funding if they don’t clean it up.
You have to love the irony!
Think the media will report this honestly?
I doubt it.
Here are some headlines:
Here's more, from UPI.com:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency threatened Tuesday to cut California's federal highway funding over a backlog of plans to meet air quality standards.
The threat came in a letter EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler wroteTuesday to the California Air Resource Board Chairman Mary Nichols, which also slammed the state's air quality.
"Since the 1970s, California has failed to carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act," Wheeler wrote in the letter. "California has the worst air quality in the United States, with 82 non-attainment areas and 34 million people living in areas that do not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards -- more than twice as many people as any other state in the country."
Furthermore, California has a disproportionate share of the national backlog of State Improvement Plans to reduce air pollution, the letter noted, including roughly one-third of the EPA's overall backlog.
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The backlog is due to "fundamental issues" which make the plans unworthy of being approved such as "missing information or resources," Wheeler said in the letter to Nichols.
If California fails to withdraw the backlogged SIPs, the EPA threatens in the letter it would disapprove them, triggering "statutory clocks" for highway funding sanctions, including prohibition on certain federal transportation projects and grants. It would also allow the federal government to impose its own plan.
And from NPR:
The Trump administration has escalated its fight with California over environmental regulations.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler sent a letterMonday to the California Air Resources Board threatening to withdraw billions of dollars in federal highway money unless the state clears a backlog of air pollution control plans.
"California has the worst air quality in the United States, with 82 nonattainment areas and 34 million people living in areas that do not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards," Wheeler wrote.
California's population, topography, weather and other factors do worsen air pollution there, but the state also is widely recognized as a leader in improving air quality.
Under the Clean Air Act, states that don't meet federal air quality standards are required to submit "State Implementation Plans." Wheeler says California represents a disproportionate share of the backlog of such plans.
"Since the 1970s, California has failed to carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act," said Wheeler. He then laid out the penalties for failing to meet federal requirements, which include losing federal highway dollars. California is expected to receive about $8 billion in fiscal years 2019 and 2020.
The Trump administration has been picking fights with California over environmental regulations recently. Last week the administration said it will revoke a waiver that allows California to set stricter car emission standards.
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A senior EPA official said the two actions were not linked and that California is the focus now because it represents the largest share of backlogged plans. Even though other states have similar backlogs, the administration has not sent letters to them.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been critical of President Trump's environmental record and challenged the administration in court. Newsom called Wheeler's letter a "brazen political stunt."
"The White House has no interest in helping California comply with the Clean Air Act to improve the health and well-being of Californians. This letter is a threat of pure retaliation," Newsom says.
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