World’s richest 1% release far more emissions then the 99%
In addition to the billionaire class appearing to be attempting to buy elections, so that senators, congressmen and presidents will do their bidding, it perhaps should come as no surprise that Oxfam (a global organization fighting against inequality) just published a report stating that the ultra wealthy are responsible for more carbon pollution then more then half of humanity. The report details how the ultra-wealthy are insulated from the impacts of the climate crisis and are sometimes profiting off of the disasters that they have created.
Their report also noted that the world’s richest 1% release more emissions than the 99%. They detail that in the U.S., over the course of a year, someone in the richest 0.1% emits 48 times more CO2 than the average person.
What can you do? GET OUT THE VOTE and remember…. Food for thought as you consider the billionaire tax on the ballot.
Five takeaways from the NYT investigation of Trump’s waivers for polluters
On October 24th, the New York Times published their investigative results.
1. Trump exempted 202 facilities in 39 states and Puerto Rico, some of the worst polluters, from new regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency adopted during the Biden administration.
The new rules came about because the Clean Air Act requires the E.P.A. … “to periodically review the latest pollution controls and impose them broadly if they are affordable and effective. The most recent review began under the Biden administration, which in 2024 finalized new, tougher requirements.”
The rules required medical sterilizers, chemical plants, and steel facilities by 2027 to monitor for emissions of cancer-causing gases along their property lines. If they detected certain levels of the gases escaping into communities, they had to fix the leaks. And they had to post the findings publicly, so that neighbors could see what was in the air. The cost would have amounted to less than 1 percent of the chemical industry’s annual sales.
2. The manufacturers fought the new rules and asked Trump for help.
Despite costs to comply, representing less than 1 percent of their annual sales, lawyers for the chemical industry criticized the rules as expensive, unnecessary and unworkable. When their lawyers filed petitions with Congress, the E.P.A., and federal courts to overturn or at least delay the regulations, the industry lost again and again as agency officials and the courts concluded its claims lacked merit.
When Trump returned to office, they saw an opportunity. Less than two weeks after the inauguration, trade groups asked the E.P.A. administrator to push Trump to exempt them from the rules. A trade association for the medical device industry donated to Mr. Trump’s inauguration fund and to his campaign affiliate, MAGA Inc.
On July 14, 2025, the chief executives of Dow, BASF, Eastman Chemical and Huntsman Corporation sent a letter directly to Mr. Trump, and shared it with the E.P.A., asking “for Presidential Exemptions under the Clean Air Act to provide relief from unnecessary and ineffective obligations imposed by E.P.A.” Three days later, on July 17, Trump began answering their pleas.
3). The Presidential exemptions were unprecedented.
Never before had a president let specific polluters off the hook. I reported months ago that The E.P.A. set up a special email inbox for requests for exemptions. Companies flooded the agency with submissions.
4). Trump put former chemical industry lobbyists inside the E.P.A.
Trump has stocked the E.P.A. with former industry insiders who have worked from within to gut the rules altogether.
The NYT reports that “Trump nominated a former top lobbyist for the Advanced Medical Technology Association, or AdvaMed, a powerful trade association, to lead the agency’s air regulation office. The former lobbyist, Aaron Szabo, had been helping the industry fight the regulations under the Biden administration. Now he oversaw the effort to rewrite them. Documents reviewed by The Times indicate that Mr. Szabo helped handle the waiver requests and then pushed employees to pull back on enforcement.”
In a letter to members, AdvaMed reported that its lobbying efforts, including political contributions to Trump’s causes, had paid off in the form of curbs on air toxics rules that saved companies millions of dollars in upgrades per plant. “Membership has its privileges,” they wrote.
5). The waivers potentially affect the health of around 3.3 million people who live within 3 miles of a facility that Trump gave a permission slip to pollute.
Before the E.P.A. finalized the new rules in 2024, it held meetings to warn people who lived near facilities that sterilize medical devices about the elevated cancer risks.
These facilities use ethylene oxide, a colorless, sweet-smelling, toxic gas which long-term exposure increased the risk of leukemia, multiple myeloma, and other types of cancer.
What can you do……. GET OUT THE VOTE!!!! and remember……
