While America took a break for the holidays, the Trump administration was quietly working away, handing out even more gifts to to big business and hoping you wouldn’t notice. But thankfully for all of us, The Washington Post has some very good reporters who noticed. Here are some of the rollbacks that happened while much of the press was watching Donald Trump play golf (91 times and counting) from The Daily 202:
*Fracking regulations overturned. The Obama administration rules that tightened regulation on hydraulic fracking for oil were rescinded. (Friday, Dec. 29)
*Weakened rules designed to prevent another Deepwater Horizon spill. The oil industry was granted their request to soften two rules enacted after the gulf oil spill. Merry Christmas! (Friday, December 29)
*Rolled back an Obama-era policy designed to protect migratory birds. This is a big win for energy companies (theme here?) which accidentally kill thousands of birds annually. Now they won’t be prosecuted. (Friday, December 22)
But this is just the beginning. There’s the Department of Justice move to push for a question on the upcoming census about citizenship that could keep immigrants from participating as reported by ProPublica. Then, there’s the firing of all members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/Aids.
The full list is here: