*By Madison Alworth*
With its latest emissions policy, the Trump administration has effectively overhauled President Obama's environmental legacy, said Earther reporter Brian Kahn.
"You couple this also with the international view of dropping out of the Paris Agreement ー or at least announcing our intent to do thatーas well as what we're seeing with the Department of Interior and its attempt to lease more oil and gas drilling sites on federal land," Kahn said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar. "Taken as a whole, these policies really signal a rapid and major change."
The administration [introduced](https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-affordable-clean-energy-ace-rule) a new rule, "Affordable Clean Energy," on Tuesday, which will roll back many of the restrictions on coal emissions that President Obama put in place.
The new plan allows individual states to regulate their coal plants' pollution rather than adhering to a federal standard.
"The Clean Power Plan was going to reduce them by about 35 percent them by 2030, and this will lead to a 1 percent decrease over that time period," Kahn said.
The new plan is largely perceived as a means to prop up the coal industry. But in a statement released Tuesday, the EPA said the rule “empowers states, promotes energy independence, and facilitates economic growth and job creation.”
"We are putting our great coal miners back to work," President Trump said during a rally in West Virginia on Tuesday night.
If the plan is enacted, Kahn said the results may be disastrous.
"So, we are going to see more carbon emissions. More importantly than that, we'll also see a lot of pollution," he said. "That will have very adverse impacts on the American public."
The administration's plan will move to an open, public comment period before it will need final approval from the president.
For full interview [click here] (https://cheddar.com/videos/trump-administration-announces-new-emission-policy).
For the first time microplastics have been found deep in the lungs of living humans. The trace materials potentially came from everyday items such as plastic bottles and bags. Dr. Jessica Shepherd, the chief medical officer at Verywell Health, joined Cheddar News to talk about the report's findings and to discuss the possible risks people might face. "The study’s most important part is we need to decrease our pollution, and we need to think about different ways to consume outside of plastic," she said.
An estimated five billion people lack access to affordable and safe surgical care around the world. For World Health Day, Cheddar News spoke with Kristie Magee Porcaro of Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization assisting with cleft lip and palate surgeries, about how they work to better it around the globe.
There has been notable disagreement in the medical community about a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose. The FDA last week authorized a second booster dose for older and immunocompromised individuals, as some agency officials did not support the idea. The FDA made the decision without meeting with its advisory committee, as it had ahead of its recommendations on the previous COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The CDC followed in the footsteps of the FDA and authorized a fourth dose as well. Reports say the agency also did not discuss the move with its own advisory team of vaccine experts. Now, a growing number of doctors are speaking out against the decisions - leaving people confused about whether they should get another vaccine dose. Dr. Julie Morita, a member of the CDC's advisory committee to the director, and the executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Talmon Marco, CEO of H2Pro, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how to bring environmentally friendly hydrogen to scale, and what this means for hydrogen's many use cases.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 7, 2022, with updates on Ukraine urging NATO for military aid for their war with Russia, the SEC investigating Amazon, microplastics being found deep inside human lungs for the first time, and more.
Patients who have grown frustrated with lingering COVID-19 symptoms and unanswered questions are now not only the subjects of "long covid" research, but also partners in pushing this research forward. Harlan Krumholz, professor of medicine at Yale University, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
A record number of tornadoes were observed in March, topping the previous record set last year. Cheddar News speaks with NOAA’s Harold Brooks about what the implications are of an early tornado season.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 6, 2022, with updates on the FDA’s meeting to discuss a second COVID booster shot, more on the war in Ukraine, tornadoes on the Gulf coast, a third suspect arrested in connection to the mass shooting in California, Darwin’s lost notebooks mysteriously returned, and more.
Two of naturalist Charles Darwin’s notebooks that were reported stolen from Cambridge University have been returned, two decades after they disappeared.
