Trump EPA close to gutting Obama rule on coal power plants

by Ellen Knickmeyer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is close to completing one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing a landmark Obama-era effort that sought to wean the nation’s electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution.

The final Trump administration replacement rule, expected as soon as this week, instead would give individual states wide discretion to decide whether to require limited efficiency upgrades at individual coal-fired power plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Administrator Andrew Wheeler would have a major policy announcement Wednesday but did not disclose the topic. Democrats, environmentalists, industry representatives and others, however, expect the final rule on coal plants.

Joseph Goffman, an EPA official under President Barack Obama, said he feared that the Trump administration was trying to set a legal precedent that the Clean Air Act gives the federal government “next to no authority to do anything” about climate-changing emissions from the country’s power grid. The Obama rule, adopted in 2015, sought to reshape the country’s power system by encouraging utilities to rely less on dirtier-burning coal-fired power plants and more on electricity from natural gas, solar, wind and other lower or no-carbon sources.

Burning of fossil fuels for electricity, transportation and heat is the main human source of heat-trapping carbon emissions.

Supporters of the revised rule say the Obama-era plan overstepped the EPA’s authority.

“This action is recalibrating EPA so it aligns with being the agency to protect public health and the environment in a way that respects the limits of the law,” said Mandy Gunasekara, a former senior official at the EPA who helped write the replacement rule. She now runs a nonprofit, Energy45, that supports President Donald Trump’s energy initiatives.

“The Clean Power Plan was designed largely to put coal out of business,” Gunasekara said. Trump’s overhaul is meant to let states “figure out what is best for their mission in terms of meeting modern environmental standards” and providing affordable energy, she said.

Democrats and environmentalists say the Trump administration has repeatedly sought to use the power of government to protect the sagging U.S. coal industry from competition against cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas and solar and wind power while ignoring scientific warnings about climate change.

McConnell on reparations for slavery: Not a ‘good idea’

By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday rejected reparations for slavery in part because it would be hard to know whom to pay.

The Kentucky Republican spoke to reporters on the eve of a rare House hearing on what compensation, if any, the U.S. might owe for the economic and other damage done by slavery. The session Wednesday before a Democratic-led subcommittee is Congress’ first on the issue in years.

Asked about reparations, McConnell responded: “I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea.”

“We tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation, elected an African American president,” Barack Obama, in 2008, McConnell said. “I don’t think we should be trying to figure out how to compensate for it. First of all, it would be hard to figure out whom to compensate.”

A review of public reports by The Associated Press suggests it’s the first time since McConnell was elected to the Senate in 1984 that he has discussed reparations for slavery in the U.S.

McConnell spoke a day before a Democratic-led House subcommittee was scheduled to hold a hearing on reparations, featuring testimony from actor Danny Glover and author Ta-Nehisi Coates, among others.

Wednesday is “Juneteenth,” a celebration of the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the Civil War was over, and that all remaining slaves in Texas were free.

In its first year, on-time bus arrival rate climbed to 95 percent over previous operator

DALLAS — The on-time bus arrival rate increased to 95 percent by the end of the school year, according to a report shared with Dallas ISD trustees on June 13.

Dallas ISD started running its own transportation system for the first time this past school year after Dallas County residents voted to dissolve Dallas County Schools (DCS), the taxpayer-funded agency that Dallas ISD contracted with to bus students. The average on-time arrival rate under DCS in 2017–2018 was 65 percent.

While Dallas ISD saw notable transportation improvements this past school year,

Dallas ISD Chief of Operations Scott Layne said the district must do a better job to start the school year. In August, the on-time arrival rate was 70 percent.

“The start was bumpy, but we’ve come a long way since then,” Layne said. “While some transportation issues will always come up at the start of the school year–no matter how much we plan and prepare–we are now much better prepared to address those issues.”

A mobile app rolling out will give parents real-time updates on their child’s bus and drop-off time. The district will provide bus route access to families at the end of July, rather than the week leading up to school.

Meanwhile, increasing the starting pay to $20 per hour for bus drivers–and adding attendance incentives and retention bonuses–has helped eliminate a driver shortage.

“We look forward to continuing to provide a high level of service to families to get students to school on time and ready to learn,” Layne said.