Republicans are trying to take down the EPA and with it environmental regulation that seeks to protect our air, water, food and health.

Many who follow environmental issues find themselves routinely disappointed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its failure to adequately protect the environment (and thus the health of the American people). Even with the EPA acting as environmental cop on the beat, the U.S. is still home to fish too contaminated to eat, dead zones off our coasts (such as one the size of Massachusetts in the Gulf of Mexico), and an unthinkable amount of pesticides applied to our lands. In fact, according to Pesticide Action Network, some two-thirds of all active ingredients in pesticides were legalized by the EPA in a process known as ‘conditional registration.’ That’s the legal equivalent of saying ‘Go ahead and use it, and tell us later whether or not it’s safe.’ Once conditionally registered, pesticides are rarely, if ever, removed from the market once the safety studies are completed.

But House Republicans and their donor base are not among those who worry that the EPA does not go far enough. Quite the opposite. The first talk of taking on the […]