With the flourish of his pen, President Donald Trump made it abundantly clear - again - that global climate change is no biggie to him and his Big Energy buddies.
In less than a minute, President Donald Trump signed an executive order effectively dismantling years of efforts to protect our air and our water.
With the flourish of his pen, the president made it abundantly clear - again - that global climate change is no biggie to him and his Big Energy buddies.
Suck it up, Trump signaled to New Jersey and the rest of the states as he ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to begin dismantling Obama-era plans to close coal-powered facilities and replace them with more sustainable forms of energy.
Tuesday's move came the day after an editorial in The Times, titled "N.J. has polluted future if Trump keeps gutting the EPA," lamented proposed cuts in the White House budget that would slash funding to that agency.
It envisioned a Garden State choking with pollution and tainted with toxic water, harking back to the era when corporations were permitted to spew their chemicals and other waste materials without fear of repercussion.
Trump is scaring the daylights out of environmentalists
Not so fast, some readers protested.
mpcarrollr25 responded: "The EPA has an increasingly problematic history of stupid or downright illegal actions: fining companies for not using a fuel which does not exist; harassing farmers in the name of 'clean water'; over-reach on 'clean air' rules which threaten the American power supply; collision with extremist groups in 'sue and settle' lawsuits, evading Congressional and even normal regulatory channels. It has been repeatedly spanked by the courts for exceeding its statutory authority."
Don Quixote took a tempered approach: "It seems clear that the EPA is guilty of overreach in many cases. It also seems clear that the EPA has done a tremendous amount of good over the years. Why does the answer have to be either 'leave it alone' or 'cut it'? Why not fix the issues with overreach and reduce the bureaucracy while sticking with the mission of keeping our environment clean?"
Educatedandwatching agreed with our premise that left to their own devices, corporations will not automatically do the right thing: "Anyone familiar with with environmental regulation knows the truth: corporations will abuse the public goods (i.e. - air, water, land) to increase profits. Corporations make decisions based on the quarterly profit sheet. Without environmental regulation, we are doomed to suffer at the hands of the wild unrestrained capitalists."
Adam offered points to ponder. "FACT: Green jobs are growing at a faster pace than dirty jobs. FACT: There are now more people employed in the solar industry than in oil, coal, and gas combined. FACT: The EPA is only 0.2% of the federal budget. You don't cut it to save money. OPINION: Even if you deny the FACT that climate change is happening, why on earth would you expose our food and water supply and our air to other toxins like coal ash which will cause a public health crisis?"
Finally, CashewBros told us to chill: "The earth is a billion years old. It will make another billion."
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