For those of you who may have forgotten, or some who never knew, we once had rivers in the United States that would catch fire because they were so polluted. The image above is the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland Ohio. The Cuyahoga River caught fire thirteen times between 1868 and 1969. The citizens of Cleveland, and indeed the nation, decided something needed to be done about the pollution of our waterways.
On February 28th, 2017, Donald Trump rescinded the “Waters of the United States” rule. It seems that Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, and his band of misfits, believe that we no longer need protection of our waterways and our environment. As stated in a recent New York Times article
In his days since being confirmed as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general who built a career out of suing the agency he now leads, has moved to stock the top offices of the agency with like-minded conservatives — many of them skeptics of climate change and all of them intent on rolling back environmental regulations.
Also on the EPA front, the Wall Street Journal pens an article stating “EPA set to reconsider car emissions standards set under the Obama administration,” and Rob Davis from The Oregonian gives us a “List of 42 of President Donald Trump’s planned EPA budget cuts.”
Meanwhile, Ryan Zinke, the newly appointed Secretary of the Interior announced that the Department will offer 73 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development. The proposed region-wide lease sale scheduled for August 16, 2017 would include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Another Gulf Oil Spill anyone?
Considering the misguided ideas and unlawful conduct of this incompetent public employee, the only executive order I want to see from Donald Trump is this one:
(FYI – you can make The Donald order anything you want by following the instructions here)
Dammit, I spilled coffee on the keyboard reading the instructions on how to photoshop Trumpf”s executive orders.
Has there been any input from handwriting analysts on the Yellow Clown’s signature? It looks like it was photoshopped from Smilin’ Dick Cheney’s EKG.
Probably preaching to the choir here but if this isn’t yet another wake up call to organize and seriously work to protect our natural heritage, environment, and thus ability to live in a sustainable manner, I don’t know what is. What is presently happening is very clear- making money at just about any cost is this administration’s priority (and those reps that vote for such policies). That’s it. Any rules or regulations are just a hindrance to business, even if the end result destroys what we hold dear and the place where we live.
I wholeheartedly agree Patrick. I do think there are many people finally seeing the light that this guy is only interested in his own well being and could care less if our country goes to hell in the process.
Recent inquiries and law suits into his dealings give me hope that the truth will come out before it’s too late. I have to believe that when it gets right down to it, there are still members of congress that are honorable and will stand up for what’s right.
For other countries, it is difficult to comprehend how much power the US president and his administration have. In most countries, changing laws and regulations is a complex and lengthy process and a change in administration is usually of limited impact to the legal framework.
I think the problem with our system is not the power our constitution has given the President, it’s more a morality issue. There are too many congressmen and women who no longer do the right thing. They are more concerned with keeping their jobs than they are serving the public. The ridiculous Citizens United decision by the last Supreme Court that opened up or elections to the highest bidder made matters unpalatably worse.
Our constitution gives congress the sole power to declare war, yet America has been involved is several wars since WWII, the last war declared by our congress. Congress, not wanting to be responsible for anything, leaves it to the President to go to war without their blessing.
Of course all of the problems with our system are exacerbated when you have a mentally ill President who appoints cabinet positions specifically intended to dismantle the departments they are put in place to support. Luckily, our system also has laws in place to remove a whacko President that cannot distinguish reality from fantasy.
Let us hope those laws for removal work before too much damage is done, though I doubt Pence is much better regarding environmental values.