Environmental Protection Agency
Going Down in Flames!
So corporations can pollute at their whim without
regard to health, welfare or repercussions!
Who would have thought that the legislative
triumph and legacy of one of the conservative presidents
(Richard Millstone Nixon)
would be destroyed by a "pretend" Republican?
Did you ever think we'd
get to the point where we thought Richard Nixon was a moderate?
Think about it!
Ending
Vietnam.
Re-opening to China.
Clean Water Act.
Clean Air Act.
Endangered
Species Act.
Ridding Kent State of vermin.
The current congressional cabal of paid flunkies of the wealthy, greedy elite
are
intent on destroying what 80% of Americans repeatedly claim in polls they hold dear!
From CNN:
In 2015, President Barack Obama created the Clean Power Plan to
slow climate disruption.
It was the first action ever taken by the US government
to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants.
And this week, with the stroke
of a pen, Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take steps
to end it.
Trump may have just signed a death warrant for our planet (at least,
for a planet that is liveable for humans).
And the lies he told to justify it
have real consequences for real Americans, here and now.
First, Trump says he
wants to dismantle the Clean Power Plan because it represents what he calls "job-killing
regulation."
False -- limited losses in some sectors are dwarfed by gains
in others.
The potential for job growth in the clean energy sector dwarfs any
potential job growth in the fossil fuel economy.
For example, Trump promised
the Keystone XL pipeline would create 28,000 jobs when he approved the project.
But
he had to use a huge multiplier to get to even that low number.
In fact, it would
create about 3,000 temporary construction jobs and only 35 permanent jobs.
That's
right: 35 permanent jobs.
By comparison, in 2016 the number of jobs in solar grew
25% from the year prior,
according to figures from the nonprofit Solar Foundation,
while jobs in the rest of the economy had less than 2% growth.
Renewable energy
jobs now create jobs 12 times faster than the rest of the economy.
For Trump to
ignore this fact is inexcusable and irresponsible.
He's actually hurting the people
he claims to help by refusing to invest in opportunities for more jobs in the booming
clean energy sector.
By the way, if Trump really cares about those coal miners
he invited to the signing ceremony,
he should be doing something about the 20,000
who are sick, retired, and within weeks of losing their health benefits if Congress
doesn't act.
When will Trump call a press conference about them?
Second, Trump
claims that the Clean Power Plan was an EPA overreach -- an abuse of its authority.
Again,
false. The plan is based on Republican President Richard Nixon's Clean Air Act.
And
the EPA's authority to fight climate disruption was established by a ruling of conservative
Chief Justice John Roberts' Supreme Court,
under President George W. Bush.
In
Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), five justices determined that EPA not only has the authority,
but
also the responsibility to cut pollution if it endangers public health -- which it
does.
Curbing carbon pollution and defending America's land, water and people
from other potentially lethal threats
is neither a liberal value nor a conservative
value.
Protecting Americans from climate chaos is in everyone's interest.
Third,
Trump says eliminating environmental regulations will make America great again.
Remember
when we had burning rivers? That wasn't so great.
If we follow the Trump trajectory,
we're going to be bringing smog back to American cities,
accelerating asthma rates
in children, putting more poison in the groundwater and costing a lot of Americans
their lives.
Trump wants to focus on "job-killing regulations."
We
should be equally concerned about potentially child-killing de-regulation.
For
example, Kamita Gray in Brandywine, Maryland is living on the frontlines of some
of the worst pollution in America.
Brandywine is in Prince George's County, which
has a population that is 65% African American.
This community has three power
plants in its backyard already. Two more are being developed.
The air quality
is so bad there that when the wind blows, people do not leave their homes.
It
will be communities like Brandywine that are left to deal with the brunt of fossil
fuel pollution from power plants in their neighborhoods.
If Trump wants to make
America great again, he needs to remember that Brandywine is a part of America, too.
(Thanks
CNN.)