Well, Putin seems to think it is a fine appointment, so who cares?
3
Putting this lobbyist in charge of the EPA is similar to asking a fox to guard the chicken coop.
7
For all of the radical pro lifers out there - & for all of those in the senate and house who say they are - you need to help everyone born and yet-to-be-born by calling your rep and telling him/her to block wheeler’s confirmation. #shame
8
The world population will double again soon and the problems we have now will all be worse. If we cannot find a way to protect the planet from our conspicuous consumption and our destruction of life on earth, we are doomed. The least we can do is work on the problems instead of ignoring them, or like Trump, willfully obstructing solutions to environmental problems. Trump is a real tormentor,way out in left field, his actions are those of a crazy man. We have a mad president.
8
Just the kind of surreal activity we have come to expect from Trump and the GOP morons, every day. Irresponsible, vindictive, selfish people.
Americans should be marching in the streets like the French yellow vests.
8
Trump has done so much damage without knowing the consequences, or caring.He is doing this damage mostly because he hates Obama so much he wants to obliterate his legacy. And the shambles he is creating will have lasting consequences. There is something wrong here and very irresponsible, that one man can be given the power to do so much damage to the country and even the world. America needs to re- tool its government or it will end up just another damaged and corrupt third world country. It is well on the way now.
5
The reality is that Andrew Wheeler IS in charge of the EPA. It is also no longer a secret that President Trump puts foxes in charge of his hen houses. The difference between Andrew Wheeler and Scott Pruitt is that Wheeler is somewhat less blatant with his malfeasance.
In this administration, the beat goes on ad infinitum: Betsy DeVos, the now dearly departed Ryan Zinke, Ben Carson, Rick Perry; self-dealing charlatans at worst; incompetent boobs at best; pigs at the trough in between.
And the All-Star lineup behind Trump at the US Senate is no better: Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley: all exemplars of stellar, patriotic leadership, with Susan Collins and Cory Gardner mouthing moderation but slavishly following the GOP Party line.
There is only one solution to our Republican nightmare of governance that goes so much deeper than President Trump. Sadly, that solution remains two years away, and it requires the extraordinary participation of the American voting public to start the repair job.
8
We need to start addressing these people like Mr. Wheeler and those who support and follow him as what they are: criminals.
8
Speaking of voting for the Republican party---What can you expect from a poorly educated population raised with TV? Who are given reduced school funding, poor health care, little profitable work, poor chances for a better life, and are still expected to think through the elaborate hoax and double speak of Fox News and their friends? Plus the fact they never, never hear any alternative narrative. Trump tells them what to think, how can they be expected to think for themselves?
It is a Catch 22 situation. A Democracy needs an educated public who can think critically. What we have now is systematic take from the poor to give to the rich and defunding of public schools.. We need to realize that this undermining is destructive. The system needs to be more balanced for the political situation to become less polarized. The system is so rigged that it is becoming ever harder to right this unbalance. Entrenchment is hard to dislodge, yet thowing it all away completely is not the answer, it is suicide. The system needs to be fixed.
7
there is a profound difference between environmentalists, such as this writer, and President Trump and his cronies and appointees. the former believe there are serious envirnomental harms we can try to mitigate, and it's worth it. the latter do not believe there could be any negative consequence worth concern when it comes to making money, and in fact do not recognize they live in the same world as the rest of us, because they exist above it all in a rarefied world of their own. the water is always sweet and the toilets never back up at Mar-a-Lago, of course, and anything we do for each other or our posterity is a burdensome and excessive cost to be avoided like, well, poison.
8
Trump is simply personifying what the Republican Party has always done.
Just in a more “honest” way.
‘No regulation is worth a single nickel of profit”
Vs democrats wanting to regulate too much.
It’s getting embarrassing.
I’m a scientist.
I test for things in your environment, many you cant sense.
The only ones I test for are proven to harm human beings.
I see first hand what companies have done ignoring regulations.
Not all are bad but...
It ain’t pretty.
4
I was amazed when reviewing US energy production figures that back in 2000, 50% of the power being generated in the USA was based on coal powered energy plants. I succinctly remember as a child growing up in Brooklyn NY that several of the houses had coal chutes. When I asked my dad about these chutes, this was back in the mid '50's, he told me that our house had a furnace that used natural gas and that coal was a an inherently filthy energy source. This conversation took place around sixty years ago. People knew back then that coal was polluting the environment. So why are we still having this conversation? As an aside, I'm wondering if the decline in mercury contamination is due to the decline in utilities using coal as an energy source rather than the installation of scrubbers. Less than 30% of the energy being produced today is dependent on coal as an energy source. Hydraulic fracturing has brought down the price of natural gas. The costs of two types of alternative energy, solar and wind power and the batteries required to store power when the sun isn't shinning or the winds aren't cooperative have declined so they
re now competitive with coal. Regardless of what Trump says "I Dig Coal," coal powered plants are going the way of dinosaurs (pun intended). What surprises me is that the USA hasn't developed small, cost effective modular nuclear plants as they seem like a good alternative.
5
This article is just one more very big reason to get money out of our politics. If we could really understand how little our vote counts when we allow individuals, now known as corporations, to give unlimited amount of money to campaigns there would be an outcry. Money changes agendas. If it didn't they wouldn't keep giving. Recently money has had an out sized influence along with the buying of social media and it's starting to feel like the government is not listening to us at all. Marching doesn't change things, shaming doesn't change things, facts don't change things. When the government is for the top 1% why should they listen to us. Get money out of politics and anonymous money out of politics..
7
Well duh! Andrew Wheeler is the proverbial fox in the hen house, there only to kill all the chickens.
Given that's what Republicans want to do, and that they hold the Senate, he will be confirmed.
It is however harder to kill the EPA than to kill chickens; takes a lot more work. Reagan installed Ann Gorsuch (Burford) to do the same thing. The EPA largely survived, though she did a lot of temporary damage. According to the WikiP "she cut the budget of the EPA by 22%, reduced the number of cases filed against polluters, relaxed Clean Air Act regulations, and facilitated the spraying of restricted-use pesticides." She resigned under congressional investigation. She came close to going to jail over Superfund shennanigans; Rita LaVelle did end up there.
In case you don't remember, Ann was Neil's mother -- he said she spent her life afterwards as a small-town lawyer pursuing dead-beat dads.
Scott Pruitt isn't doing so great either. He's still under investigation, in fact it may be heating up again. Pruitt's legal defense fund accepted a "prohibited contribution" in cash, and kept it secret. He styles himself a "coal consultant" these days, but is prohibited from lobbying. Why would anyone hire a lawyer who has never mined a lump of coal in his life and is prohibited from lobbying as a "coal consultant?"
Wheeler should pay attention. This isn't likely to work out well.
6
"The right-wing turn against environmental rules is no great mystery. The OMB report reveals the core reason: Of all the regulations passed from 2006 to 2016, it is environmental regulations, specifically air pollution regulations, that had both the highest costs and the highest benefits.
EPA rules, OMB writes, “account for over 80 percent of the monetized benefits and over 70 percent of the monetized costs” of federal regulation during this period...
To frame the same point another way: Air quality regulations serve as a downward redistribution of wealth, out of the pockets of industrialists and into the pockets of ordinary Americans, particularly the poor and vulnerable Americans (African Americans and Hispanics in particular) who tend to live closest to pollution sources. They shift costs, from the much higher health and social costs of pollution remediation to the comparatively smaller costs of pollution abatement.
And therein lies the source of industry and GOP rage toward EPA. It’s why EPA delayed and delayed air rules under Bush. It’s why the GOP Congress worked so furiously to block air rules under Obama. And it’s why EPA is weakening or repealing air rules as fast as possible under Trump."
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/3/6/17077330/trump-regulatory-agenda-omb
5
American capitalism has shown for generations and generations that human safety is often the "unintended" consequences of unobstructed pollution of our air and water. Search and gaze at photos of big cites early in the 1900's. Places like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit and others. Choking smoke. Poisoned rivers. I lived in Cleveland when the Cuyahoga River caught fire, prompting Randy Newman's song "Burn On Big River". Rabid capitalists always put profits ahead of responsible citizenry and our political leaders usually side with the very industries that are supposed to protect us from. So-called "conservatives" embrace this active crime.
2
During the last presidential campaign, issues related to regulations ensuring safe air, water and food were treated lightly if at all. Instead we heard the drumbeat about Hillary's emails and Trump's bankruptcies and his views on immigrants. Hopefully this time around the candidates will be scrutinized on these vital issues and held to account by the media and the voters. Lives are at stake. We deserve better.
6
Who needs an outside enemy when we have the best ones here at home? I recognize that letters to the NYT are likely to have no real impact on Republicans and those who support their actions, but if Americans who are in favor of this continuing erosion from within of our longterm health and vitality as a people cannot see beyond simplistic propaganda, I cannot see much of a future. After all, mercury derived from coal burning is only one example of the environmental pollutants that are entering our bodies (and those of other countries). Many others chemicals, synthetic and natural, are poorly regulated, if at all, and considering the years that were required to change the regulations on mercury, who can have any confidence that other anthropogenic toxins will be regulated? We may well be destroyed from within. And REPUBLICANS appear willing to accept this deal for short term power!
4
When the full effects of the elimination of these regulations are felt by vulnerable people, Trump and Wheeler will be long gone. In the meantime, their fossil industry buddies will have collected millions in salary and bonuses for profits generated by Trump's and Wheeler's craven indifference to public health. This is pathetic.
10
with this administration, the operant mode is "the foxes are in the hen house". the only solution to Mr. Wheeler is the longer term one, vote this toxic (more toxic than any heavy metal) administration out. And prosecute those members who have broken the law
2
For various reasons, I don't, as a very general rule, look at bylines. One paragraph into this article, however, I read a sentence and thought ( in my usual & not particularly incisive way) "Oh, Dominique should KNOW about this! I should forward the link to her.....how many women in this world have survived kidney cancer AND are this passionate about the environment? Dominique would LOVE this woman....They've both had sons, too!!!!."
Of course, one glance at the byline, and I realized that you, Dominique, probably DID "know" about the article (since you wrote it), and that you probably already do love yourself.
In any case, I'm one of those thousands who've admired your writing since those early, H&G letters-from-the-editor. So, it's gratifying to see this remarkably useful (I intend to forward it on Facebook),accessible, and convincing essay.
Here's a song for you and all the moms at Clean Air Force....go to (and thanks to all of you for your fine work): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKeyZeandXo
Sincerely,
David Terry
Quail Roost Farm
Rougemont, NC
28
And who is positioned to stop Mr. Wheeler from taking command of the EPA? Legislators. That is, career politicians. And who pays hundreds of millions of dollars (billions in some recent cases) for the misinformation propaganda efforts that are tellingly called "campaigning?" Coal, oil, chemical and energy companies, that's who.
Career politicians will not take steps that will end their careers. But protecting American's health, as much appeal as that might have, isn plainly not as important to Senators and Congressmen as their parties and their careers. You get what you vote for and, almost 100% of the time, the American voting public votes for the candidate who spent the most on misinformation campaigns.
Corporations have won every election in recent memory. Individual citizens suffer, but so what? As long as corporations can buy legislators, legislation, enforcement and judges, citizens will continue to be poisoned, fleeced, and herded onto the consumer/serf treadmill, fodder for pickpocket politicians. This travesty of democracy makes communism seem appealing.
5
The Republican party and Republican EPA will take care of the serious fish/mercury pollution problem by making it illegal for doctors to discuss environmental contaminants with women.
5
There is a lot of mercury in the ocean fish now, but It is generally not discussed because of tourism negative effects. Lobsters are high in mercury.
2
Important, under-reported story. Thank you.
5
Fact is that not a single one of his nominees is actually a good choice, and only a few have even a bare minimum of qualifications for the posts they are appointed to.
9
@John
"Only the worst people...."
TRUMP 2019
2
This is a chilling and sober analysis of what is at stake with this nomination. Thank you for writing it. Let's write our senators and block his appointment.
7
Its effects among aquatic animals is particularly pernicious. Should be "are" particularly pernicious.
6
Truly amazing that with the vast amount of verified scientific evidence, life saving measures and cost saving benefits, senators are STILL willing to forgo common sense protections for a coal lobbyist and his president. This article couldn't be clearer in explaining how these pollution impact our children and who is responsible. Front-line/fence-line communities and communities of color are impacted even more due to their close proximity to coal fired power plants. More than 1 million people of color live within 1 mile of oil and gas operations and 1 in every 9 African American children suffer from asthma. It can't be clearer: air pollution hurts unborn babies, children and communities. Wednesday the Senate will consider voting to confirm Wheeler, someone who works on behalf of polluters, not our kids. We should collectively call, email, write, send smoke signals; whatever it takes; and tell our senators this is NOT acceptable.
76
@Heather Toney President Trump does not care. Members of congress are afraid to oppose Trump's decisions.
9
@janye
While he may not care, I and many mothers I know do care. At a minimum, he'll hear my voice and know that this momma will not lay down the lives of her children at the feet of industries bent on profit over protections. I hope you'll join us, we can be louder together.
10
@janye
it is worse. His supporters do not care.
2
Republicans have established themselves as the anti-regulation party. They seem to think we live in a pre-industrial society. They fail to recognize the complexity of the world we live in and the threats that it poses. People can not adequately protect themselves and regulations are needed.
I consider Ronald Reagan the father of this anti government/regulation mind-set. He would joke that the two biggest lies are "I'll still love you in the morning and
I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you." And he famously said "Government is not the solution. Government is the problem." He got his laughs from some, but these are destructive attitudes.
Democrats need to find easily understood ways of explaining the need for regulations.
58
@jzam "Democrats need to find easily understood ways of explaining the need for regulations."
1 - your baby won't be born with avoidable, pollution-based birth defects
2 - your company won't suffer millions in lost productivity from avoidable, pollution-based illness and insurance costs
3 - people will live longer, healthier lives
9
@jzam
"Democrats need to find easily understood ways of explaining the need for regulations."
The problem with Dems is that they believe they can convince all people with boxes and boxes of data, when a large number of them do not want to understand anything more complex than a bumper sticker.
The other problem is that they have a primary issues they can present to win elections, but choose to spend their time and energy on more minor ones.
6
@jzam
I've learned to substitute the word "protections" for regulations. (realizing there is an agenda behind making "regulations" into a dirty word.) Pretty simple.
11
President Trump's appointment of Andrew Wheeler, as well as others like him in different federal agencies, serves two dark purposes. First, it's a win for industry in the short-term; regulations are loosened, and corporations make greater profit. Second, in the long-run, by mismanaging federal agencies and decimating their reason for existing, the administration and it Republican backers create disfunction and chaos in those departments.
When things eventually fall apart, or a crisis arises, President Trump will say, "See, this is how bad our government is. As President, I need to step in and run things." Ignorance and mismanagement creates a crisis that is then used to further consolidate authoritarian rule, as well as further business interests.
Like everything with President Trump, the true results of his decimating the E.P.A. won't be felt for years. In terms of "cost and benefits," the real cost of such actions is our children's and grandchildren's lives. There is no benefit other than satisfying greed.
82
Time for complicit GOP to actually provide oversight!
2
Yes coal is the fuel of the future and it represents clean power and will make a huge comeback (in black lung cases) . Just as smoking has proven health benefits the same legal /pr allies press the case denying climate change. Trump is taking us back to the good old days he remembers when brown skinned folks and women knew their place as polluting smokestacks were a sign of progress. Ugh Trump has to go along with his corrupt lackey administration.
6
It is quicker and easier to break and sabotage than fix it; two more years is too long.
7
Don’t these people take an oath to “faithfully uphold the law”?
5
Getting rid of regulations in order to maximize profits has long been a mantra for politicians who get campaign money from business. It's not the total fault of republicans but it is mostly republicans' stock and trade. When the next financial melt down occurs, when the next cancer cluster is revealed, when the next mass shooting occurs, when Miami and NYC are flooded, it's likely we will be able to trace the cause back to politicians financed and influenced by business.
78
@R. Anderson
Agreed. But somehow, the Gross Old Partisans will find a way to blame the Democrats.
13
Lovely sentiment, but Republican's are only pro-birth, not pro-life. Corporate money is much more valuable to them than sustaining life or the planet.
Unfortunately, you may as well consider Wheeler already confirmed. The GOP puppets in the Senate will confirm him lock, stock, and barrel without the hint of a nay vote.
10
@JB
They are bought and paid for by the KOCH brothers and foundations and the likes of the SCAIFE foundations!
2
"This coal lobbyist should not run the EPA." Well of course not. No coal lobbyist should.
But expect more. This administration is undoing every piece of regulation it can get its hands on, whether the regulation directly benefited people or indirectly did.
And until we have some horror like thalidomide babies, it will continue.
The fault is with voters. Any nation that can vote in a man who is so anti-regulation, that he uses the rule that we post hand washing directives in restaurant bathrooms as an example of overreach, is seriously out of touch with why we have regulations. By Typhoid Thom Tillis is still with us in Washington.
It stops when enough of us care again.
133
@Cathy
l beg to differ. Even if enough of us cared (not much chance of THAT, but even if), it would take meaningful voting mechanisms (long since replaced by corruption, suppression and boondoggle), and a political class that is not indebted to the industries it is bound by law to regulate. If history is any guide, it stops when the country fails and the government, constitution and all, is replaced. Perhaps our conquerers will have a more progressive outlook.
2
The Trump administration has shown it is not pro-life in any sense of the word. This is just one more way it is choosing to harm instead of protect Americans.
144
Mercury reduction is just another in the long history of public safety issues where you have industry on one side crying wolf (it will cost too much, it won't work, we just can't do it) and the results on the other side of saving human lives. The list is long. OSHA regulation, automobile safety, EPA all have dozens of examples where it saves lives and the benefits far outweight the costs. Remember metal dashboards, seat belts, air bags, chain saw stops, acid rain, and now mercury. In almost every case, implementation did not cost the consumer thousands of dollars. American innovation almost always solved the problem. Now we have the pro polluter administration who never met any regulation they liked. All regulations in their eyes reduces the ability to make that extra dollar. What it comes down to is the current philosophy of the Republican Party: they don't care what kind of world they leave to their children and grandchildren.
86
What this cabal 'dismantles' can be remantled with a vengeance. They've got two years. They know this is their last hurrah.
4
President Scrooge is only too happy to shove and shove lumps of coal at most of us.
3
He should run. Definitely.
And then the E.P.A. should be renamed to C.P.A.
Coal Protection Agency
2
Our two most precious resources are clean air, clean water and our, Rotten, Corrupt, To The Core, GOP cares little about either!
5
"No one voted to make America dirty again."
Sorry Ms Browning, but that is not true. The Trumpkins did exactly that...vote to make America dirty again. They want freeDUMB. The freeDUMB to do whatever they want regardless of the consequences. FreeDUMB to pollute is cherished by the Trumpkins almost as much as the freeDUMB to own and carry assault weapons.
As for the consequences of air and water pollution on our health, Trumpkins don't care. Trumpkins don't care if you have health care...they don't care if you live or die. With that in mind, why would they care about pollution. It's every Trumpkin for themselves...24/365. Time for everyone else to wake up. Our future is at stake.
6
Just another way trump is playing homage to Putin and causing damage to America. He is destroying our Democracy and our Country one department at a time from the inside out. And you've got McConnell helping him....... who else??
3
Putting a Fox in charge of a hen house has never been a good idea. No more industry hacks in charge of government agencies.
1
We should stand back and let Betsy DeVoid, Wheeler, and the other Merchants of Corporate Malice destroy the various Dept.'s of the Fed. Gubmint, then let the American Voters decide if that works for them and their families. Maybe, just maybe that would finally put the lie to the RePubs Ronnie Raygun's vow that "Gubmint is the Problem."
3
Another coal executive enabler fox to run the henhouse.
And we are all hens (sorry, don't mean to insult chickens, only a metaphor) selling our souls for shareholders and high-earning sociopathic executives.
For a cautionary tale, this about Trump's bestie Bob Murray, who wouldn't give up a penny of his huge perks to benefit the health and safety of his workers and the regions in which he exercise high-yield high poisoning coal mining techniques. He could have made it cleaner, but what did he do? Move to somewhere that didn't mind pollution and leave his workers jobless. Got a mountaintop to blow up, and watershed to make into a monster killer? Hire Trump, Wheeler, and Murray.
How the miners themselves fall for this is hard to fathom. It's time we made the pursuit of knowledge and honesty and truth great again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw6RsUhw1Q8
4
As we seem destined for runaway climate change, may I suggest watching the following video for an interesting perspective.
https://youtu.be/uzCxFPzdO0Y
A summary ...
https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/afsw8b/this_civilization_is_finished/
tromboneface• 9h
Talk at Cambridge University, November 2018
Civilization has 3 possible paths to take in the near future:
Courageous radical transformation in extremely brief span of time, a transformation the like of which humanity has never before undergone. If this succeeds, this civilization will be finished, because the changes will be so radical. This would involve local food production, etc. Extremely unlikely, but we should try. Speaker urges people to rebel to prevent extinction.
Collapse followed by possible human survival, e.g. 1000 people in Antarctica. This life raft scenario is fraught with difficult ethical problems (how do we choose who survives), but we need to start talking about enabling this outcome since this is likely our best option if scenario 1 eludes us, which it in all likelihood will.
Collapse followed by human extinction and possible the extinction of much of complex life. This scenario is likely if we don't take a hard look at reality and try to aim for scenarios 1 or 2. This is the "Guy McPherson" outcome. Speaker mentions threat of raging nuclear fires devastating the biosphere, the potential for the atmosphere and oceans being so severely damaged that there is no biosphere remaining.
1
@Kevin Greene
Just an aside: MacPherson isn't helping. Another hero is Kevin Anderson.
Long academic presentations are not going to attract anyone outside the "choir", sadly.
Here's a short look at what's in store for us:
https://nerdfighteria.info/v/M2Jxs7lR8ZI/
1
I'm sure all of the "pro-life" zealots in the Senate will vote against Mr. Wheeler because they are all about protecting "pre-born" children at any cost, even when that cost that means denying reproductive health services to millions of low-income "post-born" women.
3
Dominique Browning's detailed account of Donald Trump's criminal environmental record under Wheeler, and Pruitt before him, expresses the outrage felt by many of us. She details rollback of needed regulations and failure to enforce existing regulations. Ninety eight per cent of scientists have shown climate change to be a threat to human survival. We slow global warming or bequeath a dying planet to our grandchildren. From this point of view, Donald Trump, and his minion Andrew Wheeler, are pushing catastrophe forward.
7
Weakening environmental regulations is like forcing everyone to start smoking.
2
When reading about individuals like Mr. Wheeler I always wonder:
How does one become a monster? Was he born with a mental-health problem? Did something traumatic happen in his childhood?
How does he rationalize his behavior? Or does he even try?
Is there ANYTHING he won’t do for money and power?
Is he indifferent to human suffering or does he actually enjoy causing it - that is, does it make him feel powerful and god-like?
8
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.”
5
Hold these senators accountable. Any senator who votes for Wheeler [who has shown such a disregard for public health or the environment] will share the harm he does. Who will suffer the most? Not these denizens of high income, protected status like the Congress or Senators. The coal plants, mercury, toxins spreading from industrial byproducts won't pollute their drinking water or drift into their sacrosanct neighborhoods. It is disgusting how these Republicans are jumping to rubber-stamp Trump's ideas. Where are all the honorable Republican men [or women] who actually care? Sadly future elections can't undo the damage done. Step up Senators and speak out...someone?
5
Like anything Trump does, his nomination of Wheeler to run the EPA has nothing to do with the environment (or whatever the post involves); rather, it has everything to do with the fate and profit of Donald Trump. The man is a black hole of self-interest. Every thought he has is framed by one question: “what’s in it for me?”
With Wheeler Trump will garner the favor of the energy industry that will, at the very least, pay him back with significant campaign contributions. Whether people happen to get harmed by Wheeler’s policies is of no concern to Trump. It never crosses his mind because of the isolating wall of self-interest that he has surrounded himself with. The physical, emotional, or financial pain he leaves in his wake is acceptable collateral damage, the price of making a deal, a fact of a life in Trump’s Machiavellian jungle.
The mission statement of the EPA is: “Our mission is to protect human health and the environment.” If you were to ask Trump to reconcile that mission with the nomination of a former coal industry lobbyist to run the agency, he would have a fleeting Homer-Simpson, deer-in-the-headlights moment as the gears of his brain grind to a halt trying to process the irony - followed by a flaming defensive barrage of alternative reality.
What’s a little mercury poisoning when your accountant tallies for you a healthy profit? Welcome to the sociopathic landscape inside Donald Trump’s head – a nightmare he forces us to experience with him every day.
6
They should stop the farce of calling it the EPA, and rename it the EDA, the Environmental Destruction Agency
2
Allow me to correct the spirit of this article...
"Wake Up Everyone... a Traitor Should Not Be Appointing Anyone"
---
When it is proven that Trump is what we all believe he is, what are we going to do about all these appointments, exec orders, tweets of official status... whatever...
Everything Trump has touched must be viewed from the point of view that both Trump and Russia thought those actions hurt America and helped Russia...
Including this EPA nomination.
2
Of course he should run the EPA. His job is to either get rid of it completely or make completely unable to function. What else does the GOP stand for if not getting rid of those nasty, profit infringing regulations? It's not going to impact the Big Donors, so what's the problem anyway? From the GOP POV, if people cannot move to healthier places, it's because they don't deserve to have clean air or water. Bunch of lazy moochers anyway!
1
Trump is as anti-environment as one can get. This slap-in-the-face nomination is a brazen put down of all things environmental (air, land, water, climate, flora, fauna, etc.). Putting the fox in charge of guarding the chicken coop has to bring a chuckle to right-wing climate change deniers.
2
"As the Rev. Mitch Hescox, president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, wrote in The Christian Post, addressing Mr. Wheeler’s legalistic cover of not overturning the rule but making it vulnerable to legal attack: “God is not fooled — and neither are we.” He added, “We’ll never give up on protecting children and the unborn from mercury pollution. Never.”"
Now, Rev. Hescox, may we ask your feelings on how your flock should vote in the next presidential election?
3
I am trying to imagine what a rebuttal to this editorial would look like. Mr. Wheeler, what say you?
1
GOP stands for "guns or pollution." But you don't have to select one. The Republicans will give you both.
1
The evidence is clear: the regulations and the scrubbers work. Why on earth would we unplug such important remediation? Other nations have resoundingly supported the move away from coal power. Thank you, Ms. Browning, for your valiant, important essay. Unfortunately, we need to roll back the Thugocracy that is harming life on this planet every day. I am deeply saddened and pray to live long enough to see sanity restored in Washington.
4
Isn't this the very definition of the "swamp". I guess this is okay to trump people because it's the coal industry. Someday those voters for trump will recognize the real reason for the decline of the coal industry. It's called "capitalism" they might recognize that word. The first people to work against the coal industry employment were the coal mine operators who would rather blow the tops off the mountains and grab the coal with a crane (one employee) and put it into a truck (two employees) haul it away and move to another mountain. The other problem is fracking. Great competition by capitalist standards but bad for the coal industry. But that's capitalism. If you want to change the situation then you gotta change the capitalist system. That's not what trump wants!
16
What we're living through is the end of fact/science based democratic governance. What we're seeing is the prelude to both the death of democracy and the end of a bright future for the human species. What will come next are decades of erosion, lies and oppression until the ultimate collapse of civilization as we currently know it. Instead of using our incredible knowledge and connectivity as an opportunity for a technological future, we will sink beneath the weight of greed and corruption, into a bleak future, where life will be (even in this country) poor, nasty, brutish and short. What an absolute waste of potential. In this lonely universe, to waste sentience is the ultimate crime. We're destroying our future, for the benefit of a few bloated, corrupt, power mad old men.
28
This is news? President Trump has consistently nominated people who are unfit for the jobs he proposes them for. The only thing that Trump is considering in his nominations is how he is benefitting politically or financially from a nomination.
4
Overwhelming evidence and impeccable logic. Nevertheless, it is next to a sure thing that a coal industry lobbyist will become the next EPA chief. It will be a party line vote: Republican senators unanimously in favor; Democrats unanimously opposed. See, Republicans aren't interested in evidence and logic, unless, of course, they are accompanied by a generous campaign contribution.
8
After the creation of the EPA, the implementation of the federal Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, and numerous regulations to clean up pollution, the United States economy continued to grow and become the greatest in the history of earth. We have become the wealthiest and most powerful empire, ever.
I suppose the G.O.P. believes that, if we had never involved government to help clean up messes, we would be even greater. Maybe Republicans think we need to pollute more than the Chinese, go back to our dark industrial age practices, to keep "ahead" of the growing Chinese empire.
Or, its just simple greed that motives them. The G.O.P. wants more money for its loyalists, now, and those loyalists will be dead before the environment becomes even more dangerous. So they really don't care beyond their own lifetimes. God help their heirs and the rest of us, because the G.O.P has decided not to.
9
This is a misleading piece. The reality is far more complex.
The "great fear" of conservatives is that the executive branch will have full discretion to dictate how businesses run and, worse, eliminate or promote certain businesses (e.g., Solar over Coal).
We can debate the merit of these proposals but I think progressives are really not thinking through the implications of Agencies that have full reign as Congress has largely abdicated all its oversight responsibilities.
As it stands now, the EPA could effectively cripple the Solar industry under president Trump. This is not dissimilar from Obama era regulations that curtailed and effectively ended all new coal plant production.
Once again, the merits are up for debate (I'm not here defending coal) but the broader narrative of a sweeping executive branch and agency mandate should give us all pause.
The next few presidents are going to be extremely assertive in ramming through their agendas. Just be careful because they will not all be Democrats...
4
@Arturo
A depressing legacy of nineteenth capitalism is our acceptance of "transferred costs" as a free good. If a business dumps toxic chemical residues on the soil, it saves the cost of disposing of the residues properly, thus earning higher profits. The cost of eventually cleaning up the mess is "free" as far as the business is concerned. But it is far from"free" for the rest of us who are harmed by its toxic residues and tasked with cleaning them up.
I live in Minnesota, the "Land of Ten Thousand Lakes" (actually there are more ten thousand). In the southern part of the state where I live over half of the lakes are seriously impaired by pollution from farming and industries. Everyone but the polluters bears the cost of that.
We absolutely have to have governmental interference in free market capitalism to protect the rest of us from the predation of polluters. There is no other way to restrain them.
13
@Arturo - the "progressive" Richard Nixon was the one who created the EPA and signed a lot of the early, key, environmental regulations into law. If you happen to remember what the air and water was like back in the 1970s, compare it to now and see how "complex" the issue is not.
And Obama's Clean Power Plan didn't end the future of new coal plants, natural gas was already doing that, and wind and solar and efficiency measures all do there share, too.
So for the coal plants, your statement should have been "Obama era regulations effectively made coal plants responsible for including the cost of burning coal in a manner safe for the public".
It's not a regulator's fault that a product is harmful in multiple ways. Coal is such a product - if the killer smogs in the US and Europe back in the 50's and 60's don't convince you, the fact that over a million people a year die from the same pollution in China, and over a million a year in India, too.
Similar to how nuclear reactors require extensive safeguards, burning coal "cleanly" requires extensive add-ons to the coal plant. That it raises the cost is not the fault of humans who sicken from un-managed coal pollution.
4
@Arturo
What is your proposed solution for how the federal government should deal with mercury pollution? Or any other type of pollution?
If you dislike the current administrative state or believe that it is too powerful, then what is your solution for a system to replace it or limit it?
How do you believe regulations should be made? What process? What standard of review do you think is applicable? Are you on the overrule Chevron bandwagon? If I use the phrase "Auer deference," do you even know what I'm talking about? How about "notice and comment"?
Do you feel that senators are qualified to evaluate and select best available control technologies ("BACT") for various pollutant sources? Do you know what the term BACT means?
Do you believe that the populace is qualified? Tell me, what air scrubbers do you prefer to control VOC emissions from the machines that paint cars?.....For example.
I mean, you assume that "progressives" "aren't thinking" about how the administrative state functions and appropriate limits on administrative power, but do you have any better ideas?
5
There was another article today about the continued move away from coal by energy suppliers, because other sources are cheaper. ! Nobody needs coal, except Trump to fire up his base. Get rid of him, and the need evaporates for rolling back this important legislation protecting all of us, from the unborn to seniors.
8
Hard to say whether greed or ignorance is the greater factor in our current administration's approach to the environment.
14
The US position on coal consumption is of little value on the global stage. It would take a military confrontation -- and victory, to keep billions of people without electricity. Which would be the end result of a confrontation. I, an American, for one, am not willing to go to war because Western Progressive schemers could not redirect $ billions -- even $ trillions, out of fossil fuel industry pockets and into their own.
@Jabin The opinion article is discussing the prospect of undoing what has been accomplished by the EPA in this country. It clearly states what is happening in the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the rules that Wheeler is trying to undermine. We can't control the rest of the world, but we can and should have continued to lead by example. This president and his henchmen have thrown all of our progress out the window.
13
@Jabin Jabin's children and grandchildren should be subject to chemical and mercury pollution. Then we'll see what he says about tough environmental laws
4
@Bob
As a child exposed to the 60's Gary Steel mills, I'm all for clean air and water. Though I will reject maniacal environmental whims. Count me a blessing; As I'm here to keep the likes of you from hurting yourself.
Choice 1: Foster a growth industry that requires and employes people to develop and build solutions to global problems of clean energy and that would not only solve the problems here at home with alternative sources of engery and the means to clean existing systems, but could also be sold around the the world and give the US the prestige as the leader and the go to position in the world. Making America Great.
Choice 2: Protect a few dangerous, low paying jobs so that lobbied-for industries can sicken poison the future. Making American Toxic. But, and importantly, a few people rich!
Well, of course, 2! What else were you thinking?
24
Coal is fuel from the dark ages, we now have harnessed the wind, the sun, and as fall a fall back natural gas to meet our energy needs. Pure, clean air free of carcinogens should be a no brainer except to people like Mr Wheeler, Mr Trump and Republican senators and congressman. This isn’t even about global warming, it’s about the air we breathe and the health of our children.
90
@Eddie Cohen M.D ecohen2 . com
At this time renewables are just plain cheaper.
6
Another on a long list of under-qualified and unqualified persons who GOP Senators find acceptable to lead our government. One has to wonder why these senators' conscience doesn't stop them from doing something obviously wrong to America? Perhaps they think it doesn't matter and we don't care. Are they right? Spend a few minutes to call and email them to let them know you do.
16
Dear NYT: Elections do have consequences. Your uninspired, sensational election reporting in 2016 did it's share to put Individual 1 into office. His ineptitude and corrupted character had been well documented, yet he won. So none of this is really coming as a surprise.
He's is merely fulfilling the mandate the American people gave him: Destroying the democratic system as we know it, and starting WW III (we're not fully there yet, but hey! He's got another 2 4 years to go).
So stop complaining and enjoy the ride that y'all knowingly signed up for in 2016.
7
Another fox in the henhouse. Must be getting pretty crowded in there, what with so many frolicking foxes and dead chickens.
Bet your very last dollar that Wheeler will suppress or shred every official EPA report about AGW and the role coal pollution plays in it before he leaves. But, don’t despair. We have Rudy G’s reassurance that all is well because “truth isn’t truth”, so we can relax.
So, relax. Rest easy. Nod your heads like donkeys — nodding donkeys. Slumber on in blissful ignorance undisturbed secure in the knowledge that Putin’s bff Trump and his A-team of shills, lame-brain patsies, unindicted and indicted crooks, grifters and swamp-things like Wheeler man the limes that keep those pesky regulators and brown-skinned caravan invaders away.
And do enjoy your mercury in your soup.
16
@Steve Singer
Beautiful, clean mercury?
@MPF-
Beautiful, clean mercury.
And cadmium.
And arsenic.
Beautiful clean mercury, cadmium and arsenic contaminating food and ground water to make America great again.
@MPF-
And lead! Don’t forget the lead!
Beautiful, clean lead.
The EPA estimates that 140 million tons of coal ash are generated annually; 2,000 pounds in a ton, 1,000 thousands = 1 million ...
140-million tons = 280-billion pounds.
But we won’t need to worry about it anymore now that Mr. Wheeler is in charge. He’ll simply sweep 280-billion pounds of coal ash under the rug, in a manner of speaking, to make America great again; this year. Next year he’ll need to do it all over again, another 280-million pounds under that same rug. Or more.
Some broom.
Some rug.
2
Making Wheeler the head of the EPA is tantamount to allowing a pedophile become a kindergarten teacher. It's interesting that the EPA was essentially started by Nixon, a republican. Oh how I yearn for the good old days.
23
"No one voted to make America dirty again"? Wrong. In fact, about 40% of us voted to make America dirty.
Environmentally dirty. Ethically dirty. Dirty in the absence of transparency and good governance. Dirty with our stupidity, con-artistry, corruption, paranoia, and ignorance. Dirty as a partner on the world stage, and dirty to the poorest and weakest of us. Dirty, to the point of filth, in regard to truth. Dirty to the soul.
That's what we voted for. And, if we were paying even the slightest attention at all, that's what about 40% of us knew we were voting for.
39
@AM
"That's what we voted for. And, if we were paying even the slightest attention at all, that's what about 40% of us knew we were voting for."
Correction: That's not what "we" voted for.
Trump lost by more than 3 million votes. And, of the less than half of eligible voters who did vote, only 17% voted for him. Thanks to the Electoral College, most of these were rural voters who were blinded by fear, anger, and resentment--and the sheer joy of sticking it to the "liberals." Trump is NOT what the majority wanted. Evidence of that was made quite clear well before the election by the massive turnout for Bernie Sanders when he was running--and by the results of the recent midterm election.
4
@AM
Yes, AM, and 40% (or we down to 30% now?) still support this Administration and the GOP.
Sad.
1
Thanks for this timely reminder of this "administration's" intent to do fundamental damage to Americans' health.
For what?
Even the power industry -- realizing vast benefits at reasonable costs, including the PR benefit of cleaner air -- didn't want this outcome.
So I'm left to the conclusion that it's just about coal sales by a handful of large corporations. Which, by the way, mine coal largely through robotics, not men with shovels.
9
Putting Wheeler in charge of the EPA is like putting a pacifist in charge of the Defense Department.
3
The surest way to know that a person is unqualified/unsuitable for a particular post is that Trump appoints him/her.
12
This is one very important reason Trump needs to be removed from office asap. Behind all of the ridiculous antics he pulls, the antics serve as yet another deflection and distraction technique to enact the oligarch agenda of getting rid of lifesaving regulations that protect our air, water, and land. This toxic administration is killing us.
14
Your explicit charge against the trampling of the Environment by conflicted individuals like Wheeler (and despicable Trump, the godfather of all this farce) is well taken, and if 'the people' had a say in it, they would throw out these rascals to stop their malfeasance. Just don't count on the republican (Trumpian) congress, now devoid of morals...and 'giving a fig' to what may happen to millions of innocent folks, condemned to lose their health, and die prematurely, all because of greed (Ugh!).
5
You are joking, right? Appealing to the Republican Senate for reason is like expecting an elephant to swim: they can under extreme circumstances but, OMG it is not an efficient or pretty thing.
3
@B. Rothman
OMG
What a way to damage the nation's health and environment. Appoint a polluter to erode the EPA from the inside.
6
All of Donald Trump's appointees are men whose mission is to dismantle the agencies they oversee.
So what else is new? Trump is obeying both his own business instincts -- to privatize everything and then rape it -- and the GOP's platform.
8
For this, this entire administration should be brought up on charges of crimes against humanity.
13
The Senate has been "lobbied" by the fossil fuel industry to be "terminally" asleep on global warming and environmental and health destruction......the US population must WAKE UP and INVIGORATE the new House of Representatives and the Legal system........to do their job .........on behalf of their OWN HEALTH !
2
He certainly wouldn't get MY vote, if I had a say-so as to whether or not he gets appointed. So sad.
I eat a lot of fish. It's supposed to be healthy. It is a crime to poison our abundant Atlantic fisheries and sicken our children. The Constitution requires those in power to promote the public Welfare. If we had a government that was was not bought and sold Mr. Wheeler would be rejected by the Senate.
8
@Robert
Plastic has now been detected in human feces from consuming fish. I am afraid it is no longer safe either, particularly tuna which has an alarmingly high amount of mercury. I am a chef: don't kill the messenger.
My boyfriend has been a lobster fisherman for 50 years in Maine, and the mussels and starfish have disappeared.
All pay for the corrupt synergies of earth-dunces.
If all the true costs of fossil were laid bare, green energy would already be many times less than the cost of fossil.
If coal were truly competitive now, would there be a niche for these corrupt officials undermining our health and integrity of ecosystems?
These guys cannot play on a level field. So they corrupt it in all their dark ways. These guys are outlaws pure and simple.
2
Cost benefits are filthy words.
If one Republican Senator votes against this ill advised appointment I will be very surprised.
Trump knows nothing so who finds these people for him? We know Leo of the Federalists finds the reactionary judges but who finds the rest of these terrible choices?
4
Mr. Wheeler ignored the industry’s request that the standards be left in place. As the Rev. Mitch Hescox, president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, wrote in The Christian Post, addressing Mr. Wheeler’s legalistic cover of not overturning the rule but making it vulnerable to legal attack: “God is not fooled — and neither are we.” He added, “We’ll never give up on protecting children and the unborn from mercury pollution. Never.”
A Christian working to protect God's creation?! Maybe there is hope...
In the meantime, my only consolation about climate chaos is that when Florida, being doomed, goes, Mar A Largo will also go. I only hope the Don is there, meeting with his band of cabinet.
7
RE: "Mr. Wheeler ignored the industry’s request that the standards be left in place."
Proof that the Republicans want to kill you when they don't have to. No, not figuratively, literally kill you. First you will sicken. Then because they have removed your ability to get health care you will get worse and die. (Doing so quietly and out of sight would be appreciated.) Even better, because they have removed your legal protections you won't be allowed to go after the polluters in court or in class action. Nor will your survivors.
Taking a away saftey regulations. Taking away health regulations. Taking away your ability to get health care. And finally taking away your ability to fight being harmed. Its the perfect plan.
It is a good thing that corporations are people now because corporations can't be affected by poisons or lost limbs or life. Just human beings. And once humans beings can be killed off you are left with just the corporations.
Somehow the Republicans seemed to have overlooked a critical flaw in their plan to rid the world of human beings.
5
I really don't have much to say other than I agree with this article and with the vast majority of comments on it.
The EPA is/was one of the most important departments in this country. It is a global tragedy to see it gutted like this. This is the only Earth we have. We need to protect it with every tool we have.
Since 45 and the GOP got into office all of the greedy and stupid people in this country have destroyed so much that was right in America and 'The people' are suffering because of it.
I don't know enough to say if 45 should be impeached or not but him and everyone that has anything to do with him needs to go as soon as possible. Two more years is way to long to wait as our institutions are destroyed before our very eyes.
Congress is finally in democratic control, we just need the Senate to wake up to the real needs of Americans and stop the insanity.
Make America a Democracy Again
6
According to the NYT, the Trump administration has rolled back 78 EPA regulations. Wheeler has been instrumental in doing so. Putting Wheeler in charge of the EPA is like putting Wayne Lapierre, head of the NRA, in charge of the ATF, responsible for gun regulations.
7
The real worry, is the people who vote for people that endorse this kind of immorality. What kind of reason would someone have to harm themselves or loved ones. What ever the reason, Trump and other politicians, prey on this human weakness. It seems they have jumped in with both feet, to take advantage of todays world, where algorithms read peoples minds, and spit out "plays," that convince them of anything. Of course their partners in crime are the media giants and think tanks, who push the "plays," in their own twisted self interest. This phenomenon has not been pushed without thought.
With the undoing of the fairness doctrine, we have been bombarded with one sided babble, to the point of phycological warfare. Not until we can be free ourselves of this menace, are we going to be able to work through the true problems that face us, with any kind of moral clarity.
1
Their primary mission is to “protect the environment.” If an individual can’t do that, they should not be hired or fired.
Previous Trump officials that claimed they were rolling back regulations because EPA did not have the authority and it was government over reach had done nothing to “protect the environment.”
The EPA’s mission can be found here:
https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/our-mission-and-what-we-do
Each applicant should be asked what they will do to fulfill that mission. Simple as that.
1
An 'evangelical' who works to resist one of Trump's more heinous directives?!
Good to see that. Now, about the rest of them who see this so-called President as a savior-of-sorts...
2
He want's to gut a rule that is medically beneficial and costs less that the industry first projected. That's just being mean.
1
The twisted “logic” used by the Wheeler EPA to dismantle our protective regulations is incredible. I’m reminded of Gen. Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove, “ i’m not saying we won’t get our hair messed up, 115 million casualties tops!”
2
The author seems to think that the EPA has something to do with protecting the environment. That was true at one time but its new mission is to protect polluters and other industrial enemies of protecting the environment from doing their jobs.
"Profits over people" is the new motto of the agency and anyone who serves as head of EPA under Trump will live up (or maybe down) to that motto.
6
Republicans believe in freedom. The freedom to decide to pollute the air and water, not only for themselves, but for their neighbors too. Republicans believe in a similar belief in "freedom" when it comes to abortions: The freedom to tell someone else what they have to do to satisfy their own personal religious beliefs.
5
An important and timely Op Ed piece, though we can expect few Republican Senators to do the right thing in response. A quibble: cadmium, arsenic, benzene and formaldehyde are not "probable" carcinogens. The International Agency for Research on Cancer and the American Toxicology Program classify them as "Group I" and "known" human carcinogens, respectively. The science is clear.
10
Trump ran on saving coal miners' jobs. If it's jobs and only jobs that matter, as Trump and Wheeler's actions suggest, maybe the Democratic candidate in 2020 should run on saving engineers' jobs. Doing away with environmental and safety regulations hurts engineers because now they are not needed to maintain or improve systems. Vote Democratic. Save an Engineer.
18
@Citizen-of-the-World
Save an Engineer: good thought.
So I wonder how many jobs environmental and safety rollbacks have created compared with employment levels of, say 30 years ago. There's an impossibly long way to go. Except possibly for the need for increased medical specialists.
1
To me, it's an impeachable offense.
The president swears to faithfully execute the laws of the United States. The EPA's charter is to protect the environment. When the president repeatedly decides to use the EPA to do the opposite -- to force the agency not to do its job -- that's not faithful execution of the law. That's using the machinery of government for political ends, just like sending 5000 troops to the border to fend off an "invasion" of 5000 asylum seekers.
Hiring Wheeler is just like firing Mueller: it's not just a policy decision. It's an active undermining of the rule of law, in precise violation of the president's sworn duty.
21
@James K. Lowden. Just catching on are you? Well, better late than never. The first priority of the Republican Party for the past decade or more is to kill as much of the federal government as possible and to withdraw its influence wherever it can be done until only the military is left.
4
Republicans want to convince us that such regulations are "job killers".... never mind that they are "baby killers." But, in fact, when we decide to act proactively to protect ourselves and our children, it CREATES jobs. Scrubbers? Someone has to research and design the technology to develop Scrubbers. Someone has to develop and implement a plan to install Scrubbers. Someone has to learn to monitor and maintain the effectiveness of Scrubbers. Improving our world CREATES jobs!
35
It is as if Wheeler suffers from mercury poisoning....sort of a mad hatter of the EPA.
When the industry requests the regulations to remain in place and is subsequently ignored by the agency responsible for the regulations, the level of dysfunction has hit 100%. At this point, shutting down the EPA would be beneficial as they would not be able to continue to increase pollution levels by unending deregulation.
8
A coal industry lobbyist in charge of the EPA? Might as well put Dana Loesch in charge of the ATF. This the trump administration at it`s best or should we just say administration, trump is to lazy to put any time into researching appointments. Pence, and the foot soldiers supplied by various industry Oliarchs, was in charge of maning this team. trump was probably giddy in agreeing to Wheeler since it played into his stage personae at the rallies. Pruitt was just the moral trump doppleganger grifter put in place, wheeler was installed to be on hand to do the day to day destruction. This is just the Oligarchs running government so way they can make the most money.
11
So the republicans shut the government down, but keep on deregulating and selling our resources to private parties, as indicated in the NYT article on lumber sales and this article. trump seems to be taking over unilaterally without congress even realizing it.
14
There is no longer a federal government or EPA. So this appointment is window dressing. Curtins on the Titanic. We are suposed to accept being governed by Trump’s gut. Not going to happen. It won’t take long for the states to collectively realize there is no “united” states and to move on. When it’s up to them, some states will act responsibly...
8
As we have seen with the shutdown, trump could not care less about the the people. His agenda is removing anything and everything associated with Obama to show the world that he is the real 'winner'. We are dealing with a president that acts like a child and thinks like a child. He is not a knowledge based president and republicans have gladly used him to get all of their dreams answered while happily misleading their base of child-like supporters who unbeknownst to them have not been able to figure out or understand that they have been left out of the discussion.
21
In an accompanying piece in today's NYT appears a break down for each state spelling out how they generate electricity and how it has changed over the past twenty years. The trend has been the elimination of coal for other cleaner sources and this is so even in those states that have fought the trend. It is heartening and shows how these states recognize the truth by their actions even as they applaud Trump's anti environmental agenda. Coal hangs on only because of men like Mr. Wheeler who care nothing about our health, environment or climate change, but promote their employer's bottom line.
Trump may slow down the trend to better sources of power, and that is a crime in itself, but he can not stop it completely because market forces and our obvious health needs will force the necessary changes. Will it be enough and fast enough. It sure would be an advantage if we did not have these coal apologists running our government, and another reason to kick the bums out.
20
I wonder if there are enough members of the Senate who support pro-environment principles to reject Wheeler's nomination?
5
Sadly, no. The GOP in its entirety is under the thumb of the fossil-fuel industry.
6
@Maryanne Not among the Republicans, that's for sure.
1
The EPA is now the Environmental Pollution Agency.
The radical Republicans have always been extremists.
It's the only political party party in the rich world that adamantly rejects universal healthcare for its citizens.
What other clue do you need that this is the Party of Death ?
Add in gun anarchy, record income inequality, Grand Old Poverty, science denialism, religious lunacy in the 21st century, and a Robber Baron Greed Over People sensibility to every single public policy issue under the sun, and what we have is a political part that wants you to drop dead one way or another.
There are many excellent reasons to never vote Republican, but the fact that they are actively trying to kill Americans is as good a reason as any.
The Republican Party is the party of sociopaths.
147
@Socrates Well said! And killing Canadians, who are next door and also eating fish and breathing the same air. I live in Ontario, and we (not me) just elected Doug Ford, another conservatice mini-Trump, who is also getting rid of many of the positive measures brought in by the previous (liberal) government to protect the environment and who is using the same arguments as your president. Here also, rural people vote conservative and miss the good old days, while the urban voters are more progressive. Rural areas are mostly white, and the urban areas are multicultural. And of course, in Canada as elsewhere in the world, Liberal does not mean left wing. Originally, Liberal meant free trade and open markets , the opposite of mercantilism and protectionism. We are all affected by misguided policies!
11
@Socrates writes,
"The Republican Party is the party of sociopaths."
Yes. Completely true. And I will make the additional point that this applies to all party members, not just the actual politicians. The Trump base is made up of sociopaths. They hate society and want the government to dissolve. They are really happy with the shutdown. They want industry to pollute. They want the rest of us to "go away". For myself, that feeling is mutual.
The rest of us need to wake up to the fact that some of our neighbors are exactly as disgusting as Trump. Not a pleasant thought, but the truth must be acknowledged...and dealt with.
10
When Trump first picked his cabinet and chose Pruitt to head, a man who spent his whole career determined to close down the agency, we thought the end had come. This current appointment proves that there is a bottomless barrel from which the Trump can scrape leaders of our national agencies.
The sad story behind the obvious one of Wheeler and his agenda is that this pattern of destruction at some point will force congress to so severely limit the powers of presidential appointments that when the time comes (and it will) that we once again have a more pure Executive Branch of the government, the then current president will have his hands tied and other nefarious and greedy powers will help destroy our democracy.
We have so many crises currently exploding within this government that attempts at recovering are like trying to get 100 kittens into the same basket. I hope our new Congress is up to the challenge!
27
Kentucky has a "rich" history of putting coal executives and industry insiders in government positions of power over natural resources and coal extraction. If we're not careful America will end up with a leader like Governor Matt Bevin who pushes the boundaries of civil discourse, bends over for coal and energy companies and abuses the power of his office. Oh, wait....
38
He was doing his duty and serving his clients. No different than saying somebody who once worked as a criminal defense lawyer is not qualified for a job as a prosecutor because of their past conduct.
4
@David It's profoundly different, as obviated by Wheeler's proposed changes to the rules governing mercury pollution. Ask yourself, whose voice does he bring to the table? Whose interests does he serve? As EPA administrator he is acting as though he still represents the interests of the coal industry. But as a civil servant his job is to serve the public interest. To safeguard human health and the environment. The fact that he cannot or will not distinguish between his former and current roles is exactly what disqualifies him.
11
Actually this could be better described as "lacking a moral compass"...or.."all about the money."
5
@David
Ah yes, the "I was just following orders defense."
David, there is a constitutional right to legal defense. I respected defense lawyers working for sexual abusers I helped get charged.
I'm fuzzy on the moral equivalence to polluters and their enablers.
4
You have described one reason that the Republicans want Wheeler to run the EPA, but surely there are more. Perhaps he wants to get rid of catalytic converters? Ban electric cars? Pave the rain forests?
20
@Peter
But why? Is money all these people see in this beautiful world of ours?
Sad
2
While the points are true it is going to be almost impossible to get policy reversals in the next two years. One thing that can be done, and the public health community is truly remiss in this regard, is to get the word out to women of child bearing age as to which fish are high in mercury. The data are available publicly are not broadcast to those who need to know.
16
Rule #1: When considering the motivations of Republicans, always assume they will act in a way designed to maximize profits for their oligarchic supporters.
Rule #2: If there is any doubt about Rule #1, dismiss that doubt. It always comes back to Rule #1.
157
@Glenn Ribotsky Well said and on target. Bravo.
6
@Glenn Ribotsky
Rule #1a: Don't forget the roles of hatred and stupidity. GOP mantra: "What you love, I will hate and destroy."
Trump mantra: "When you confront a bad situation, make it worse."
14
@Trekkie
Rule 1b: second GOP mantra: Destroy with gusto. Gratuitous, casual cruelty is fun.
2
Of course Wheeler should not be top man at the EPA. What did you expect with Trump as President Ralph Nader?
With Trump you'll always get the bottom of the barrel.
It's all about money and what is in it for him.
33
With a nomination hearing on Wednesday for Andrew Wheeler, it's essential for parents to scrutinize his record as acting EPA administrator. His actions make it clear that he wants to put more pollution into the bodies and brains of our babies. Why? Because he is in thrall to billionaire coal baron Robert Murray, his former boss. Wheeler's actions show that he thinks literally nothing of the EPA mission to protect public health and the environment. Big money is more important to him than our communities, our families, and our children.
60
I agree with the comments in this article, but for all the reasons as to why Mr. Wheeler should not be running the EPA they ARE the reasons he is being appointed by the smog-filled head of Trump.
64
The Trump administration clearly seeks to unravel any regulations that are meant to actually help people. All it wants to do is reward corporations.
But, we must remember that Trump is likely out in 2020. The Reagan administration also attacked the agency and it survived. There are plenty of hardworking and knowledgable people inside the agency that will keep doing their jobs. Furthermore, the agency works with state and local officials to ensure environmental safety. Those state and local officials will not necessarily give up doing what is right.
7
@Anthony
Anthony,
Not everyone can count on state agencies. Our governor—now senator—brilliantly gutted our agency years ago.
1
@Anthony
Their ability to do what is right will destroyed legally by the Courts with Judges appointed by the trump administration.
you just have to wonder why the 3 or 4 republican senators needed to stop the Pruitts, Wheelers, Zinke's and De Vos's that Trump sends up to them for confirmation can't produce a SINGLE NO VOTE on any one of these monsters? Do they not have any children, mothers, or even human beings in their states? GE had to shell out $500 million to clean one section of the Hudson it had filled with dioxin; corporations MUST be aware of the future liabilities they face no matter who Trump nominates. What is the point of stalling for 2 more years? Maybe criminal penalties will get their attention?
121
These types (coal barons like Andrew Wheeler and other power and money obsessed plutocrats calling the shots for our planet these days) bring to mind an image of the Grinch slithering back down the chimney to pluck the last crumb from the house that was too small even for a mouse. The crumb in this case is the last bit of clean air, the last healthy child, the last tree, the last wetland, the last animal of its species.
44
When Mr. Wheeler swings the pendulum so far to one side, gravity will quickly pull it to the other. And, we only have to wait two years before sanity returns.
14
@Didier
What an important, timely and influential op-ed on the Wheeler appointment. Does the man have children? Have they given him grandchildren or is that likely down the road? The Senate Committee should summon them and ask if they have considered the consequences of the nominee's now established record at the EPA. And, if his plans for the agency are dire enough, shouldn't the House of Representatives consider defunding his agency while encouraging state action to fill the vacuum until voters can restore their Government's sense of purpose (and common sense)?
13
@Didier
Gravity only pulls things down, a pendulum doesn’t move more quickly in one direction than the other, and “only two years” is the same amount of time as “two long, miserable years during which I will be cursing and pulling my hair out.”
2
@Didier
We can only hope. And work at the solutions.