Putting A Wolf In The Henhouse

THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY was established during the Nixon administration for the purpose of protecting the environment. Anyone who has ever been to Beijing or New Delhi, or lived in Los Angeles in the seventies, or is at all conversant with the history of the treatment of the environment by American corporations if left unregulated, can easily understand the need for the EPA. In 1970 America was dirty, and getting dirtier, due largely to unregulated environmental polluting. The EPA has improved, indeed saved the American environment, and should and must be strengthened, not weakened, in order to proceed with the salvation. It has done a remarkable job for over forty years, particularly under Obama. Now, however, it is in jeopardy of being rendered inert by virtue of Donald J. Trump's choice, Scott Pruitt, to serve as its leader. Common sense would seem to dictate that the leader of the EPA always be a person who is extremely committed to protecting the environment, and Trump and his new choice would doubtless both argue that this will indeed be the case, but, alas, they would be dishonest in doing so. Trump's pick, the current attorney general of Oklahoma, isn't even sure he believes in mad made climate change, and that in itself is alarming. Nor does he wish to use all possible means, including government, to move towards sustainable energy sources and away from fossil fuels, equally alarming. Then too, he is closely associated with the fossil fuel industry, having been elected due in large part to its assistance. Very alarming. it is obvious that the president elect was looking someone to weaken the regulatory power of the EPA, to render the agency as ineffective as possible, rather than strengthen it. Trump said something typically banal, to the effect that he wants to EPA to return to its original purpose, protecting clean air and water, as it it had ever abandoned that purpose. What Trump, the new EPA director, and good Americans conservatives everywhere want is to remove all environmental protections which slows down or adds inconveniences and extra expense to manufacturing, industry, or interferes in an way with corporate profit.