The Check In: The Environmental Protection Agency

-If you've been following
the recent saga of the Republican health care bill
which once again failed to get the necessary votes to pass,
you might think the Trump administration
isn't accomplishing anything.
But there is one department,
the Environmental Protection Agency,
that has actually been quietly implementing big changes
unfortunately to the benefit of a select few.
So we decided to take a break
from the breaking news of the day
to look at Trump's EPA.
It's time for "The Check In."
♪♪
For years, Donald Trump has expressed doubt
about climate change,
once tweeting that global warming was just a hoax
perpetrated by the Chinese.
In fact, during his campaign, he went so far as to say
he would consider getting rid
of the Environmental Protection Agency altogether.
If only he could remember what it was actually called.
-Would you eliminate any departments?
-Oh, absolutely.
Department of Environmental.
I mean, the DEP is killing us environmentally.
It's just killing our businesses.
-[ As Trump ] Get rid of the DEP.
[ Normal voice ] There's no such thing as the DEP.
[ As Trump ] Mission accomplished.
[ Laughter, cheers, and applause ]
Now...
Now, Trump didn't follow through
on his promise to eliminate the agency.
Instead, he put a man in charge
whose prior environmental experience
consisted mostly of suing the EPA
in an effort to help big business.
-The president also appointed Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA,
a man who, in the past, has sued
to stop environmental regulations.
-You have Pruitt, whose job it has been
to actually nullify
the statutory authority of the EPA.
-Well, Scott Pruitt was not a big fan
of the EPA to begin with, was he?
-No.
He was the attorney general of Oklahoma
and had sued it about a dozen times.
-[ Chuckles ] Oh, my g-- And now he's the head of it.
[ Laughter ]
-It's like the plot of a bad '80s college movie.
He was the drunkest guy in the frat,
but thanks to a paperwork mix-up, he became...
the dean?! [ Record scratches ]
-[ Screams ] ♪ I feel good ♪
♪♪
[ Applause ]
Scott Pruitt being the head of the EPA
is the same as New York's food inspector
being a rat with a clipboard.
You guys leaving your milk out?
Good to see. Good to see.
I better not catch any of you washing your hands.
I'm just busting balls. "A"-plus. Now get back to work.
Now, reports show that in just the five months
since Pruitt took over, he has...
Pruitt has called for a back- to-basics approach at the EPA,
which critics say is nothing more than an excuse
to push Trump's anti-science agenda.
And that agenda looks something like this.
-The Environmental Protection Agency has raised some eyebrows
with the changes it has made under the Trump administration.
Back in April, climate change information
was wiped off the EPA Website.
Then last month,
half of the scientists who used to provide
scientific guidance on air and water quality
were fired from the agency.
-The Trump administration has taken steps
to roll back an Obama-era policy that protects
the nation's streams from pollution.
-A federal court ruling that
the head of the EPA overstepped his bounds
when he tried to delay an Obama-era regulation
about reporting methane leaks.
-So the Trump administration is vehemently anti-leak
unless that leak is methane,
in which case it's fine
because this presidency is a cow fart.
[ Laughter ]
And now, several states --
several states are also challenging
an even more troublesome decision Pruitt made
to reverse a ban on the use of a pesticide
that the EPA's own scientists have said
could damage children's brains.
And if we have to protect anything,
it's the brains of our children
because when we don't protect their brains,
they take meetings with Russian agents.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Even more disturbing, the company that makes
the pesticide in question, DOW Chemical,
has close ties to the White House.
How close?
DOW's C.E.O. Andrew Liveris heads up
the White House manufacturing working group.
And there he was right by Trump's side
as he signed an executive order on reducing regulations
across government agencies back in January.
You almost can't blame Trump.
If you give him a pen,
he'll sign anything that gets too close.
He probably thought this was an executive order
legalizing cougar hunting.
[ Laughter ]
It's the president.
It looks like DOW Chemical ultimately got what it wanted.
-The Trump administration's top environmental official
reversed the Environmental Protection Agency's push
to ban a widely used pesticide made by DOW Chemical.
-Thousands of pediatricians
are calling for Pruitt's decision
not to ban the DOW pesticide, well, deeply alarming.
-Man, you've got to be ice cold
to ignore thousands of pediatricians.
My son's pediatrician told me to keep him out of the sun,
so any time we go outside, I put him in a beekeeper suit.
Relying on independent science
is perhaps more important now than ever
because one of Pruitt's next big decisions
will be whether or not to limit the use of a popular weed killer
as some officials and scientists say
its main ingredient, glyphosate, could cause cancer.
California, for example, already plans to classify glyphosate,
made by controversial company Monsanto...
The EPA is required to review pesticides
at least once every 15 years.
And according to reports,
the future approval of this particular weed killer
could be uncertain because...
However...
How can you not block a cancer-causing weed killer?
Well, you can do anything you want when you're...
the dean?! [ Record scratches ]
-[ Screams ] ♪ I feel good ♪
This has been "The Check In."
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]

The Check In: The Environmental Protection Agency

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