It appears there is no disaster seeping from the addled mind of President-cum-Dictator Donald J. Trump that our boy Andy Barr can’t try to make worse.
Trump toady Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, announced plans this week to neuter the organization he is supposed to lead and gut life-saving environmental policy for good measure.
Zeldin is serving up a rule rescinding the so-called “endangerment finding,’’ adopted in 2009 during the administration of President Barak Obama, that authorized the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, like carbon dioxide. That finding was instituted to address global climate change, a danger to human health and a significant factor in increasing extreme weather events – something Kentucky has experienced much too frequently.
The endangerment finding has served as the rationale for many of the regulations promulgated in recent years under the Clean Air Act, ranging from limiting motor vehicle emissions to the release of dangerous discharges from coal-fired power plants.
Lisa Jackson, administrator at the time the finding was adopted, determined, through scientific data, that “current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases,’’ including carbon dioxide, “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.’’
Jackson further held that “the combined emissions of these well-mixed greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines contribute to the greenhouse gas pollution that threatens public health and welfare.’’
But that evidence has failed to penetrate the thick skulls of either Trump or Zeldin, intoxicated by the whiff of carbon dioxide fumes wafting over the lower 48.
In making the announcement in Indianapolis, Zeldin said “many stakeholders,’’ whoever they are, “told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year. We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA’s GHG — greenhouse gas — emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide which the finding never assessed independently, was the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods. If finalized, rescinding the Endangerment Finding and resulting regulations would end $1 trillion or more in hidden taxes on American businesses and families.”
What dishonest dreck. The research is solid, the Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the endangerment finding and whatever costs are incurred will be pennies on the dollar once the invoice for the impact of global climate change comes due, Zeldin, an obvious incompetent who has dismissed the data after having heard his master’s voice, boasted that the recission will represent “the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.”
And, certainly, one of the stupidest, not to mention, potentially, the most toxic to public health. All so the demon Lord of Mar-a-Lago can derive some erotic pleasure from mining coal and drilling for oil without caring a wit for the consequences.
This, sadly, does not represent the first time Trump and his pals have taken a whack at the environment during his first six dreadful months in office. Back in April, Trump issued an executive order specifically supporting what he incongruously characterized as “the beautiful clean coal industry.’’
“For years, people would just bemoan this industry and decimate the industry for absolutely no reason, because with modern technology and all of the other things that we do, it’s one of the great, great forms of energy,” Mr. Trump said during the order signing.
Good lord he’s either dumb or lying, you choose. Onshore wind and solar produce the cheapest forms of energy currently available, costing less than gas coal or nuclear. Solar in particular has proved more than worthy.
The sociopath has also withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, declared a national energy emergency and shut down efforts by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, to encourage the development of electric vehicles.
Then, earlier this month, Trump championed and signed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, aka the One Massive Ugly Bill, that, among other things, cuts tax credits currently benefitting renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, by 2027, a frontal attack on the industry.
What Trump, Zeldin and others are glossing over is that the endangerment finding is based on substantial and confirmed scientific evidence that greenhouse gasses, produced by the burning of fossil fuels, pose a danger to public health. The proposition that the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants has been affirmed numerous times in court, providing a legal foundation for US efforts to curb emissions.
Essentially, the finding obligates the EPA to limit greenhouse gas pollution and the agency has undertaken a number of initiatives to reduce emissions from power plants, petroleum-powered vehicles and various oil and gas operations.
And it closes the door on efforts to address dangerous temperature hikes around the planet. While Trump and Zeldin dig and drill, NASA, the National Aeronautic Space Administration stated in a release just last year, that “Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner.
“Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves.’’
There will be, according to NASA, a rise in sea levels, more severe hurricanes, more droughts and heat waves, longer wildfire seasons and changes in precipitation patterns.
Even the arctic could become ice free.
According to the World Health Organization, “Climate change is impacting health in a myriad of ways, including by leading to death and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, storms and floods, the disruption of food systems, increases in zoonoses and food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues.’’
But Trump and Zeldin are only too willing to ignore these outcomes so they can, for some insane reason, dump the prospect of renewable energy in favor of alternatives that, taken to the logical conclusion, will destroy the planet.
And to all that we can now add Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, the next senator wannabe, to what Aretha might call the chain of fools. Even before the cold, stiff body of the Environmental Protection Agency hit the ground, Andy was out there touting something he calls his RESCUE — Rare Earths from Coal for U.S. Energy — Act, which he hailed as a “comprehensive legislative package aimed at rejuvenating and securing the future of Kentucky coal. These proposals would unlock new domestic markets for coal-based materials and strengthening American energy and national security.’’
“Coal once powered 50 percent of America’s electricity,’’ Barr said. “Today, that number is now below 20 percent — not because we ran out of coal, but because Barack Obama and Joe Biden waged war on it,” Barr said. “President Trump said we are going to put the miners back to work, and that’s exactly what this plan aims to do. We want to secure coal’s place going forward and deliver good paying Kentucky jobs for the future.”
The measure contains a lot of gibberish about coal waste and stopping the federal government from discriminating against coal companies. What it doesn’t include is the impact his junk will have on global climate change, the impact it might have on folks with respiratory problems like asthma, why it should get in line with renewable energy sources that don’t wreck the land while handing the cash to coal barons and why shouldn’t there be a greater focus on diversifying the economy in the Eastern Kentucky coal fields.
But it will sure tickle his coal-crazy master, Donald J. Trump. And we all know how much Andy wants that Senate job.
But, you know, the real issue here is how many people have to die as a result of his policies before Trump is satisfied. Think about it. Boston University has calculated that, as of this writing, 124,377 people have died because he instituted a near-total freeze in US foreign aid funding and programming. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that “roughly 16 million people by 2034 would lose health coverage and become uninsured because of the Medicaid cuts,’’ ultimately resulting in an untold number of deaths for those who don’t have access to vital care. Now he’s blowing away initiatives aimed at addressing global warming, a looming health care crisis that could affect individuals around the globe.
There’s more.
So, how many?