La guerre est finie
The war on coal is over; the war on the environment has intensified.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told coal miners in Kentucky on Monday that he will move to repeal a rule limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants, assuring them, “The war against coal is over.”
Awesome. Let’s have more and more and MORE greenhouse-gas emissions so that the environment can crash even faster and more destructively than it already is. Those fires racing through Sonoma and Napa counties in California right now? There will be more of those! Yay! And as for the hurricanes – they’ll be like this year only more so. Fun!
“Tomorrow, in Washington D.C., I’ll be a signing a proposed rule to withdraw the so-called Clean Power Plan of the past administration, and thus begin the effort to withdraw that rule,” Pruitt said.
The 43-page proposal, which was obtained by The Washington Post and other news outlets last week, argues that the agency overstepped its legal authority in seeking to force utilities to reduce carbon emissions outside their actual facilities to meet federal emissions targets. It does not offer a replacement plan for regulating emissions of carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court has ruled that the EPA is obligated to do. Rather, the agency said it plans to seek public input on how best to cut emissions from natural-gas and coal-fired power plants.
And to the surprise of everyone the public input will universally urge voluntary personal dedication to turning the thermostat down a degree.
Why public input on a scientific matter? Because the scientists are not saying what Pruitt likes. He trusts the public – at least the Trump-voting public – to be more in line with his preferences. Those of us with years of training and experience? We can be ignored. We are coastal elites. (Never mind that I live almost dead center in the middle of this enormous continent, right above Kansas, where there is no coast in sight. Even our rivers barely have any water in them).
Science is for suckers. Public opinion, as long as it says what these monsters wish to say, is the only thing that matters. Once public opinion goes with the science, it will be chucked overboard for something else – perhaps the Rule of Pruitt and Koch.
@Jeff – true. Considering your comment, I now think the real problem is the difference between the adverb and adjectival forms of “nice”. The person in question could “be nice”, even though they were not “a nice person”.[0]
I didn’t really spot that that was the distinction I was really trying to make, at the time. Thanks for the perspective. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with a slightly better way for phrasing it for next time it comes up.
Argh – wrong thread. That last comment was meant to be on the “Il ne regrette rien” post!
Can you put it there and then I’ll delete the first one? That way I don’t have to sign in for you.