
New executive order allows federal agencies to bypass environmental laws - Farbodkhz
https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/05/trump-executive-order-environmental-laws-covid-19-economy/
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RcouF1uZ4gsC
At the same time, you have to admit that these environmental reviews were
weaponized by people such as NIMBY’s to prevent infrastructure being built by
tying up projects in years of environmental reviews. In the last several
decades, the US forgot how to do infrastructure. I doubt we could get the NYC
subway ever built now, for example.

Something needed to be done. This is heavy handed now, but maybe we can
achieve a better balance in the future.

~~~
Dwolb
Is your statement that you don’t think the country could technological
complete the NYC subway (barring any bureaucracy challenges)?

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
I think the bureaucracy challenges including the various environmental
challenges would blow up the time and cost so much that it would be
infeasible. There is also the issue that we have not done such a big
infrastructure project in a long time, so there would be a learning curve
again.

~~~
Dwolb
It’s an interesting claim but not really factual or able to be
proven/disproven unless we were to complete the project ourselves :).

My own opinion is we could (in this situation let’s just pretend to
bureaucracy) build the entirety of the NYC subway.

My main reasoning is a) we have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to build
underground [1] and b) we have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to build
trains [2].

Now a subway is probably harder because you need to combine the two things and
there are probably complications to figure out how to build under a city, but
I don’t know any further knowledge on the topic.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_and_Reservoir_Plan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_and_Reservoir_Plan)

[2] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-
Speed_Rail](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-Speed_Rail)

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Melting_Harps
Hyperbole, and sensationalist title: Executive orders cannot be enacted so
easily, it can be disputed in congress and lawsuits can and will be brought
forth to contest them.

But this isn't new, the Keystone XL debacle pipeline was essentially the same
thing that marked a new norm. Propping up these dead industries, mines and
pipelines, with typical plutocratic nepotism has to be the most prevalent
thing in Washington. And while this speaks to me directly as an
environmentalist, I can't help but think of all the BS bailout
bankster/corporate welfare we've seen decade after decade despite whatever
administration is in office, which is what essentially enables these
corporations to lobby the Government to do this in the first place.

~~~
kjaftaedi
This is a systematic dismantling of environmental protection that has been
ongoing for years.

Here is a list of 100 environmental protections that are being rolled back, 66
of which are already complete.

[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-
envir...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-
rollbacks.html)

~~~
Melting_Harps
> Here is a list of 100 environmental protections that are being rolled back,
> 66 of which are already complete.

That's horrible news, I just don't think attributing it to a single
administration does anything but distract from the real concern. Hating Trump
is not just sensible given his myopic and senseless presidency, its become
entirely blase and often just an knee-jerk reaction to the REAL CATASTROPHE
Megacorps have inflicted on the Earth, unabated by any administration. I
remember when water sources near fracking sites under Obama were catching on
fire:

[https://reason.com/2013/07/05/the-top-5-lies-about-
fracking/](https://reason.com/2013/07/05/the-top-5-lies-about-fracking/)

No to mention all the water tables being depleted in Central California, which
not just feeds the majority of the US, but also a lot of the rest of the World
with food exports.

I think what needs to be implemented is what was proposed with Ecocide
legislation and Law and to have it be enforced with the full arsenal of not
just lawyers (as most Megacorps can skirt around this and pay a settlement and
continue with business as usual) but actually make them lose business licenses
and have their Insurances rates balloon 1000X for every infraction and
eventually taking their Market Share:

[https://ecocidelaw.com/](https://ecocidelaw.com/)

People who argue against this as some anti0business apologist need only see
the devastation one single pandemic has caused to the World's economy; thank
god we're not at Water War levels that have been spoken about since I did my
Undergrad in Biology in the late 2000s.

We have them in earnest in Colorado, and have had it in California since I was
born in the mid 80s so I know what its like nearly all of my Life. But if the
whole World had this going on simultaneously because we polluted all of the
potable water I'm convinced we'd be looking at outright genocides of entire
continents by Warlords and the re-introduction of slavery to build and run
make-shift desalination plants.

And I honestly don't think that's hyperbole, slavery returned to Libya after
the fall of Gadaffi and Libya was the richest nation in Africa and often
referred to the Switzerland of Africa.

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ken
Different article about the same event:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23422469](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23422469)

