SEND THIS FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY STOOGE BACK TO OKLAHOMA AND PRAY FOR OKLAHOMA.
To have Scott Pruitt heading the EPA is not so much a matter of hiring a fox to guard the henhouse as it is to hire a demolition crew to bulldoze the henhouse and crush the detritus to a pulp.
At least the damage Jess Sessions will inflict as Attorney General may potentially be reversed. But the damage Scott Pruitt can do to the environment as head of the EPA—to include pretty much dismantling the organization itself, as he has already attempted to do as Oklahoma Attorney General—can cascade down for decades. Toxins such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic released by coal burning are natural elements that can poison air and water for eons to come. Not quite as permanent is atmospheric carbon dioxide (it is a compound, after all, not an element), but it naturally persists for centuries, plural.*
I’ve thrown in some links below ⇓ to pump up your level of outrage and hope you’ll ask your Senators to send Pruitt back to the fracking-riddled, earthquake-rattled state of Oklahoma whence he came.**
The Trump transition team’s canard is that what Pruitt aims to do is merely to limit “executive overreach,” abrogate the Clean Power Plan as part and parcel of the Lying-Media-hyped Climate Change Hoax, and otherwise reasonably act in behalf of clean water and clean air. However, the record shows that Pruitt’s course is to give a pass to any industry whenever and wherever enforcement of environmental regulation poses an inconvenience to easy profits—whether its factory-farmed hogs or coal-fired power plants. Not so, say Pruitt’s defenders; in fairness see link below in Pruitt’s defense.
The science on Climate Change, says Pruitt, is “not settled.” Sure, and also “not settled” is that if you drink two gallons of 100-proof vodka in an hour, you will fail to survive with all mental faculties intact.
The Pruitt confirmation hearing comes up on Wednesday Jan 18; when the full Senate vote on him occurs (should his nomination survive ) may be within the next week. Time to jump on this.
If you have time or can make time, comment on your Senators’ websites, and email, and phone (both talk to staff and leave a message on an additional call), and preferably all four, to convey your strenuous opposition to the Pruitt nomination.
LINKS TO INSTILL OUTRAGE:
NY Times Puts Specifics into Pruitt Career
*See Carbon Dioxide Takes Long to Kill
** I am not an opponent of natural gas mining per se, but I do oppose its excesses and eluding regulation. See my piece on the need for natural gas to help bridge to an all-renewable future: https://www.markheinickewrites.com/2016/09/02/why-we-should-cheer-for-natural-gas/#more-194