A staple argument that trolls have touted to justify attacks on the EPA has been to point to the King Gold Mine Spill as evidence of EPA’s incompetence. Now the Inspector General has released a report on the spill and found that the EPA was not at fault.
Although everyone without an anti-EPA agenda already figured as much, it is nice to finally have some concrete evidence to push back with. (Not that being wrong has ever stopped EPA’s critics in the past.)
Speaking of whom, freshly back from annoying our allies and praising our dear leader, Scott Pruitt is expected to speak to the Senate appropriations committee tomorrow morning to discuss the proposed EPA budget. It will be interesting to see how he justifies the administration’s approach of increasing state-based efforts by gutting funding for state-based efforts, and how he explains his rhetoric about refocusing the EPA on superfund cleanups while cutting superfund support by $300 million - nearly a third of its current budget. (A hypocrisy the WSJ editorial board is too happy to fecklessly defend, and in exchange gets promoted by the White House in a press release.)
According to a report from former EPA employees covered by Rebecca Leber at MotherJones, Trump’s proposed budget would cut the EPA’s science programs by 47 percent, while also cutting the state grants for air and water programs by a third. Overall, the EPA is looking at a slash of 3,800 jobs - a quarter of its staff.
Pruitt’s “Back to Basics” rhetoric jibes with Trump’s nostalgia, and like Trump’s slogan, Pruitt evokes a past that never was. Because the “basics” of the EPA are protecting the environment and public health, and Trump’s budget will destroy the programs (and jobs) that keep America safe and healthy. Even Republican-appointed EPA administrators think so.
But we will give credit where it’s due - Trump is creating tremendous, fabulous, absolutely phenomenal number of jobs in coal mining. The first coal mine to come online in the “Trump Era” (even though it’s technically been in the works since before he was elected) is certainly delivering on Trump’s jobs promise by employing 70 individuals! (Which for reference, is fewer employees than an average supermarket, which employs 92 people.)
Now cutting 3,800 EPA jobs and creating 70 coal jobs for a net loss of 3,730 jobs seems like a great deal to us, but then again, we aren’t fantastic, incredible, truly blessed businesspeople who turned tens of millions of dollars from daddy into a string of failed companies, so what do we know.
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