Scientists issued a new alarm on the devastating impacts of continued burning of fossil fuels. But the Trump E.P.A. keeps propping up coal.
While “scientists set 2030 deadline to stop climate disaster“, Republicans continue to do the bidding 💰 💰 💰 of the Fossil Fuels lobby and industry. And they won’t be satisfied until every last drop is burned. #RepublicanSwamp #FossilFuelLobby
“The E.P.A.’s bedrock mission is to protect public health and welfare. Its basic tools are 50 years of federal clean air and water laws meant to limit Americans’ exposure to environmental poisons and pollutants.”
Every so often an administration comes along that seems to forget this mission. We have one now. Andrew Wheeler, the agency’s acting administrator, is clearly a great improvement in moral terms over his ethically challenged and thankfully departed predecessor, Scott Pruitt.
Wheeler’s ideology and policies, however, are much the same, weighted in favor of the industries
Wheeler once represented as a handsomely paid lobbyist, and against the health needs of Americans.
Like the president he serves, Mr. Wheeler displays little concern for climate change and its epochal challenges.
The latest example is a proposal his agency sent to the White House for review and approval that would, in broadest terms, greatly devalue the public health benefits of reducing air pollution. The proposal is specifically aimed at a 2011 finding by the Obama administration that when the agency devises rules to control a particular pollutant — mercury, in this case — it must take into account not only the compliance costs to industry but the additional health benefits that arise from the reduction in other harmful gases like soot and smog that occur as a side effect.
The Wheeler proposal would disallow any calculation of these side benefits and allow only those associated with the regulated pollutant.
“So chalk up another win for Robert Murray, the far-right Trump confidante and chief executive of the Murray Energy Corporation”
a big coal producer for which Mr. Wheeler served as an attorney and lobbyist. Mr. Murray requested the mercury rollback as one of 16 items on a wish list he presented last year to the Trump administration. He is one of several coal barons who lobbied the administration to revisit the cost-benefit rules to set a precedent for future regulations.
“Near the top of Mr. Murray’s to-do list, higher even than mercury, was the repeal and replacement of the Clean Power Plan, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s strategy to fight global warming.”
Republicans, why is the government handing out $21 BILLION in Fossil Fuel Subsidies each year?
