Trump officials threaten to withhold highway funding from California
Source: Washington Post
for its 'chronic air quality problems'.
Trump administration officials threatened this week to withhold federal highway funding from California, arguing that the state has not shown what steps it is taking to improve its air quality. The move by the Environmental Protection Agency escalates the fierce battle between President Trump and the left-leaning state, and could put billions in federal funding in jeopardy.
In a predated letter sent late Monday to the California Air Resources Board, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler suggested that the state has failed to carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act and needs to either update its plans to tackle air pollution or risk losing federal money.
At stake, the EPA said, are billions of dollars in federal highway funding every year. Federal officials have the right to halt that money if they determine that a state is not taking sufficient steps to show how it aims to cut air pollution such as soot or smog-forming ozone.
In the letter, Wheeler notes that 34 million Californians live in areas that dont meet federal National Ambient Air Quality Standards, more than twice as many residents as any other state. California has more than 130 state implementation plans, which serve as blueprints for how California would tackle these pollutants, awaiting federal approval.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/09/24/trump-officials-threaten-withhold-highway-funds-california-its-chronic-air-quality-problems/
There is no end to this administration's fuckery.
applegrove
(118,026 posts)modrepub
(3,469 posts)Make someone else pay taxes for your government services. That's what part of this is about; take money from the net tax revenue states and give it to the states that generate little to no net taxes. Dems need to pass austerity backstops that say when government service/grant need to be cut, they get cut to the areas that generate the least amount of tax revenue first otherwise these types of shenanigans will continue. While they're at it, they should increase the local contribution for federal projects from 10% to 50%. If you want federal funding then put up more of yours first.
The Liberal Lion
(1,414 posts)Didn't that asshole just tell California to rescind it's auto emissions standards?
When the union dissolves California will be the first to go. Calexit!
eggplant
(3,893 posts)Also see: "Homelessness, complaining about" followed by "homelessness, withholding funding for".
rzemanfl
(29,540 posts)bluestarone
(16,723 posts)The house should Cut the funding to the EPA?
erronis
(14,955 posts)And as I also believe, there is nothing that this (mal)administration wants more is to have states stop cooperating with the evil federal government.
Why, you may ask.
Because that benefits the foreign interests in seeing this country in turmoil, and also follows the libertarian goals of eviscerating any form of governance.
George II
(67,782 posts)Aussie105
(5,215 posts)'Nice state you have there.
It would be a pity if something happened to it . . . .
Now, stop your complaining and do what you are told!'
SergeStorms
(18,907 posts)they'll never see a penny of that highway funding!
rzemanfl
(29,540 posts)demigoddess
(6,640 posts)to go -----------
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,752 posts)I remember the first time I went there, in 1968 and being completely gobsmacked by the terrible air. I've been there any number of times since, last time about 2007, and most of the time the air was quite fine.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Borowitz? The Onion? I mean, really.
Karadeniz
(22,283 posts)beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)Kill California ability to require tighter air standards on cars and trucks, then use EPA to pull money because California air is too dirty....then go at homelessness and
Democrats better wake up, especially California democrats.
Trumps vengeance has NO limits.
40% of Americans cheering him on because they DO VOTE, something too many democrats do not
Nitram
(22,671 posts)executive branch did not have the authority to unilaterally and vindictively deprive a state of mutually agreed federal funding for partisan reasons. The two parties bitterly fought domestic state leglislative decisions, but came together when it came to receiving financial aid from the federal government.
Perhaps the seldom-mentioned Tea Party was responsible for the destruction of the mutually accepted Constitutional wall between a states' rights - and federal authority. In my opinion, the wall between the two was better left well-defined, but subject to Constitutional amendment. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is piece-by-piece disassembing a hard-fought, decades-long bipartisan push to restore clean air and clean water in the United States of America. And Republicans who used to bemoan their "duty" to their "constituents," have more loyalty to an unfit president (who may pose a clear and present danger to the security of the United States of America) than the United States of America or indeed, their own states' citizens.
Leith
(7,802 posts)The House, specifically. What the heck is agent orange going to do? Refuse to sign the budget bill?
He's shooting off his mouth, as usual, just in case we forgot that he's an idiot blowhard.
roamer65
(36,739 posts)New York and New England should do the same with the Canadian dollar.
They should also start establishing hard borders.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)and die slow, agonizing, penniless, lonely deaths, shunned by their families, in decrepit and fetid jail cells ... starting RIGHT NOW ...
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LORD!
AMEN!
rurallib
(62,346 posts)He is sure gunning for California.