— By Dede Williams — 

Once, even lame-duck politicians felt obliged to engage. Environmentalists were always uncompromising. And now? Strange times make for strange bedfellows.

In 2024, sued by NGOs for foot-dragging on revising the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for nitrogen oxides, then-US President Joe Biden and his EPA chief Michael Regan pledged to get the job done by the end of 2028. Under President Donald Trump, that timetable has fallen to dust. Entrenched in the White House for two more years, the lame duck seems more interested in fighting remote wars than slashing emissions. Hard to sell him on the “biggest downgrade ever”.

To mute the discussion in a congressional election year, the EPA and green groups have vowed to stop fighting each other and to kick greenhouse gas reductions down the road to 2029, when Trump should be out of office. Quirky democracy?

Unusual are the terms of the modified consent decree, which bars the EPA from making any new rules on the topic and silences criticism for two full years. While the Trump EPA under Lee Zeldin should have no problem doing nothing, “green” voices may have trouble speaking “no evil” about the perils of extending the Obama-era emissions limit of 100 ppb over one hour.

Let’s see how long the silence – some call it censorship – lasts.