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Trump Admin Guts Environmental Protections During Final Days in Office

HeadlineJan 19, 2021

In its final days, the Trump administration has issued a series of new energy and environmental regulations to benefit the fossil fuel industry and other big polluters.

On Friday, the U.S. Forest Service issued a final environmental impact statement, paving the way for a massive copper mine in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest, which is sacred land to the San Carlos Apache Tribe.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed an order to allow mineral leasing across 9.7 million acres in western Alaska. The Interior Department has also decreased how much oil, gas and coal companies must pay to drill on public lands and waters.

Other last-minute decisions by the Trump administration could result in less protection in the Pacific Northwest for the northern spotted owl, which faces extinction, and new exemptions for oil refiners, steelmakers and landfills from future carbon emission limits.

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