To stave off the depression and alcoholism that’s plaguing the EPA (and the rest of us), let’s find some good news!
Here’s something that, while not fun, is at least a little punny. Last week, a couple of protesters brought oranges to a Scott Pruitt event to protest his decision to ignore the EPA’s own science and decline a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos. Rachel Leven for Bloomberg BNA ended her short write-up with the perfect kicker: “No word yet on whether they consider their protest to be fruitful.”
Then there’s the somewhat surprising good news that Congress is apparently having some trouble drumming up the votes to repeal a regulation requiring the fossil fuel industry to stop wasting methane that is a byproduct of the drilling process. So that’s nice, since a repeal would mean that there couldn’t be any similar methane regulation in the future. Hopefully, this will go down as a lemon.
The next amusing tidbit comes from down-under. We’ve told you about Heartland’s hilariously bad mailer (that, as we hoped, teachers are reportedly using to teach students about proper skepticism). However, its experts pale in comparison to a similar piece of work from Australia. The blandly-named Institute of Public Affairs is fundraising for the 2017 edition of it’s Orwellian-named Climate Change: The Facts book. Graham Readfearn reports in DeSmog that among its esteemed authors (like Matt Ridley, Bjorn Lomborg and Pat Michaels) is a New Zealander whose past work includes a book on reading your cat’s pawlms and rubber-band magic, and he also denies the link between the sun and skin cancer. In case you’re wondering, Ken Ring’s the name of this particularly crazy Kiwi.
Similarly unqualified experts can also be found, sadly, in the government these days. Columbia Law’s Sabin Center has a short post by Jessica Wentz that looks at the experience of Trump’s energy and environment appointees. Nearly a third have ties to the fossil fuel industry, and over half have no experience with the issue they’re now working on. This is comforting in that their incompetence will be an impediment to their mission to make America grape again.
Speaking of which, the Trump administration’s infighting continues to be an issue that gives us some schadenfreude. Politico’s Shane Goldmacher has one of the best palace intrigue stories of late. Seems last week, the White House held a strategy session to try and unite the three power centers of the administration (Priebus and the establishment GOP, Kushner and the “liberals,” Bannon and the alt-right). Among the activities was a markers-out “made me feel like I was back in fifth grade” brainstorm session to try to figure out what Trump has actually accomplished to date. It also offered some pushback on the idea that Bannon’s on the way out, despite the knives being out for him.
So who’s going to end up in charge of Trump? Only time will tell, but our hopeful bet is that Trump sticks with his always-loyal family and empowers the more moderate Kushner wing.
Now, orange you glad we didn’t say Bannonana?
Unrelated bonus feel-good link: Diane von Furstenberg Calls Tucker Carlson A ‘White Man With A Small Penis’.
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