Good Morning.
Scott Pruitt, the embattled head of the Environmental Protection Agency, finally resigned last week amidst thirteen federal inquiries into his questionable conduct. Some of the stuff he allegedly did was just plain bizarre. He purchased a soundproof telephone booth for $43,000 and insisted on buying a used hotel mattress when he clearly could afford a new one. Of course the hotel was owned by the president of the United States. His staffers were charged with finding a cushy job for his wife and running all over town in search of a pricey moisturizing lotion. Anyone who complained about these tasks was reportedly demoted, reassigned, or dumped, so perhaps it isn't surprising that he annoyed enough people to warrant a security detail
that cost American taxpayers $3.5 million.
During his tenure at the EPA, Pruitt was determined to get rid of a host of measures put in place, as far back as Ronald Reagan, to protect the planet and its inhabitants from harmful pollutants. Pruitt does not believe that human activity impacts the climate and doesn't seem to give two shakes about the well-being of Mother Earth. He proposed the repeal of a ban on emissions from coal-powered electricity plants and a rollback on the regulations affecting the disposal of toxic coal ash. He wanted to scrap the gauges used by oil and gas companies to detect emissions of methane and withdrew the ban on a particularly dangerous pesticide, chlorpyrifos, that had been prohibited as a bug killer in 2001 and later from use on food crops. In May 2017, farm workers in California who were picking cabbage noticed a strange, tarry smell and shortly began having symptoms of toxic poisoning. It was determined that chlorpyrifos had been sprayed at a nearby orchard.
Pruitt told the truck builders they could once again use old diesel engines that had been previously outlawed. He wanted to reverse the ban on paint strippers laced with methylene chloride but changed his mind after meeting with the families of painters who had died after being exposed to the material. He proposed dumping a measure that protects water flowing through animal-inhabited farms and ranches on its way to the nation's rivers, lakes, and oceans. He wanted more business tycoons and less medical and scientific experts advising the EPA and basically said the hell with public health studies and data collected from patients suffering from environmental pollution. He was, of course, against the Paris Climate Accords and strongly urged the president to pull the United States out of the agreement. His successor will continue the administration's determination to strip away as many EPA regulations as possible.
There are basically two attitudes when it comes to how the environment is treated. The first doesn't care about what kind of air people breathe or the quality of the water they drink as long as a great deal of money can be made by exploiting the natural assets of the planet. The second is not only concerned about what people must inhale and ingest but is worried about the planet itself. Human beings with the latter mindset prefer an unobstructed view of the mountains and enjoy fishing in waters free of hazardous waste. They'd rather consume food grown under ample amounts of sun and water but not with a bunch of chemicals that are probably carcinogens. They'd like to breathe deeply without the possibility of keeling over. They're properly impressed with the earth's beauty and not inclined to mess with it in order to line their pockets. At the moment they're regarded as the weirdos, and I am one of them.
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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