Where There's Smoke...

Ok, it comes as no surprise that once they wrested power from the palsied hands of the Democrats, the Republicans would attack one of their favorite targets, the EPA. But in such predictable fashion? Really? How sad.

This week we've seen House Republicans introduce legislation that would, amongst other things, prohibit the EPA from regulating 'greenhouse gases'. At all. Like, nada. Well, since the Clean Air Act and other mechanisms that work to allow us to see the far horizon or actually, you know, breathe I can understand why they are anathema to any right-minded Republican. I would imagine that the dollars poured into their campaigns by the likes of Exxon/Mobile and the Koch bothers have nothing at all to do with the introduction of this particular bill.

All joking aside, to put this kind of blanket deregulation forward so soon after the catastrophic impact of the Gulf Oil spill takes some real brass ones. How are they related, you ask? Its simple. The premise being put forward by the Republicans is that industry (no matter which type) is capable of self-monitoring and all can be trusted to be good stewards of our environment. As the hamstrung yet still illuminating inquiries into the Gulf Oil spill have proven, none of the entities involved in that fiasco did the right thing despite all of the regulations we currently have in place, let alone in this proposed future state of "scout's honor". Time and again, polluting industries have failed to maintain even the minimal standards that were present under, for example, the vacuous and ineffective EPA under the Bush administration. Now that we are actually seeing the EPA do good work, the proposal is to clear-cut them to the nub. Nice.

I can see where this might clash with the far-Right's commonly-held belief in the "word of god" aspect of the bible that kind of tells us to take care of this planet of ours, but that's another post entirely.

Its one thing to be a puppet for Big Oil and the coal lobby. But to go to the baseline of no regulation and to prohibit the EPA from regulating any greenhouse gas emission, air quality provision or clean water effort is the precursor for our country to become a bleak industrial wasteland. I would ask if these men and women have children for whom they might be concerned about in terms of the legacy they leave behind - this world we are the custodians for relative to all humankind. That would be quite naive of me however, since I can tell by legislation such as this that they obviously don't give a damn about any of it.

Once again, if you aren't sitting on the board of Citgo, own 10,000 shares of a mining company or your family founded American Electric Power you can't rightfully think that this is a good idea. If you are a Republican because you like their views on tax policy, the deficit or even school prayer, you don't have to go lockstep with them on this. Its short-sighted and sells our future for a few campaign dollars. I have two kids that I would like to grow up in a world that doesn't look like the photo above. How about you?

Wake up America!