Nathalie Bapitiste at Mother Jones writes—Pruitt Is Gone. His Replacement Continues His Destructive Work:
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency rolled back Obama-era regulations that had protected drinking water from being contaminated with coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal. Although the coal industry is heralding it as a win, environmentalists say the new rule poses a serious health risk.
“This administration is doing everything it can to give coal a free ride, including dismantling our bare minimum protections,” Larissa Liebmann, staff attorney at Waterkeeper Alliance, said in a statement. [...]
The new coal ash rule is Andrew Wheeler’s first major act since taking the reigns from Scott Pruitt, who resigned earlier this month. Before joining the EPA in April, Wheeler was employed by Faegre Baker Daniels, a consulting firm that lobbied on behalf of energy companies that were against the Obama-era coal ash requirements. Wheeler said the new rule would save $28 to $31 million a year in regulatory costs. “These amendments provide states and utilities much-needed flexibility in the management of coal ash, while ensuring human health and the environment are protected,” he said in a statement announcing the new rule.
TOP COMMENTS
QUOTATION
“Unrestrained automobility, hedonism, individualism, and conspicuous consumption cannot be sustained because they take more than they give back. A spiritually impoverished world cannot be sustained because meaninglessness, anomie, and despair will corrode the desire to be sustained and the belief that humanity is worth sustaining. But these are the very things that distinguish the modern age from its predecessors, Genuine sustainability, in other words, will come not from superficial changes but from a deeper process akin to humankind growing up to a fuller stature.”
~~David W. Orr, “Four Challenges of Sustainability,” 2003
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2007—Another view on censure and contempt:
Censure, as many of you know, is not my preferred method for dealing with the legal and constitutional violations of the Bush "administration." But I do think that for Senator Russ Feingold to have reintroduced the idea after having been left standing virtually alone when he last proposed it, is an act of considerable courage.
As a Senator, of course, Feingold is simply not empowered to introduce articles of impeachment, so in terms of direct action, censure is probably about the best that can be expected. Rep. Robert Wexler, on the other hand, who introduced his own resolution of censure in the House, does not have that excuse. And while he surely has a whole raft of reasons to prefer censure over impeachment, none of them are that his hands are tied by the terms of the Constitution.
The advantage of censure -- if it is an advantage -- is that it doesn't face the hurdle of having to garner a 2/3 supermajority in the Senate in order to pass. On the flip side, neither does ordering a large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. And both pose about the same threat to the White House.
Still, there may be good reason to go on record, both with censure and with contempt charges.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: It's been a while since we had a #GunFAIL talk. A case out of Utah (again) changes that. Ah, almost like “normal” times! Secessionists now consider themselves "nationalists"... who love Russia. Meanwhile, the Russians are said to be in our electrical grid. Still.
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