Apparently “pay-to-play” has now become recognized as the surest method of getting to the front-of-the-line with the Trump regime. Dow Chemicals CEO Andrew N. Liveris didn’t have long to wait for his turn to take control of his purchase of a powerful government institutional lever — The EPA.
When Donald Trump put a PetroChemical/fracking industry shill, Scott Pruitt, in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency it was only the beginning of the pay-for-play deal making process that would ensure “stakeholders” got their monies worth.
As Oklahoma's Attorney General and with 14 lawsuits filed against the EPA; a list of conflicts of interests rivaling that of Trump himself; perjuring himself during his confirmation hearings, Scott Pruitt had proven to Trump he had all the prerequisite qualifications as one of the corporate shills making up the Trump cabinet.
Beyond that’ I won’t add much but my own take on it — iow’s a bit of ranting it would be really good to hear even more of from our representatives too on this — imo.
Rachel Maddow and team dug into the two memos that new EPA head and republican Scott Pruitt circulated as his response to Trumps recent executive order: Pr*sidential Executive Order on Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda
Pruitt’s response was addressed to all EPA officials from top to bottom.
— April 4th, 2017
Rachel Maddow reports on a pair of memos believed to be from the EPA describing the new system and schedule for eliminating environmental regulations.
Here are screen shots, with blown-up excerpts of the two memos EPA head Scott Pruitt has distributed to all EPA outfits nationwide. They tell the tale of what’s going on. The long time GOP agenda of flouting the laws of the land — those so-called “burdensome regulations” that protect our water, air, rivers, lakes & streams. oceans, lands and our people against the toxic pollutants produced by the various PetroChemical/Insecticide/fracking “stakeholders”
Any action taken by EPA personnel must be reported directly to Scott Pruitt’s new reordered system
Nothing can happen at any level within the EPA’s regional and national network without running it through Pruitt’s new system
So, complete regulatory capture
Scott Pruitt’s new system’s “Task Force” mirrors that of the GOP’s failed attempts at abolishing PPACA healthcare (Obamacare) in its language; Repeal, Replace, and Modification.
Iow’s if the use of nearly identical language is any indication of the true motivation here, repeal, replace and modification means:
a) repeal = gutting the EPA.
b) Replace = Regulatory capture.
c) Modification = flouting laws on the books that Scott Pruitt is unable to undo outright
And here is the kicker:
Let me as a layman do my best to translate that bullshit in the caption below that last screenshot of Pruitt’s memorandum:
While we, Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency will pretend to comply with existing law...
...What Scott Pruitt is actually doing is dictating to all agencies charged to protect the environment; to cease all normal protective actions immediately and “consult with “stakeholders”
That every EPA and any ancillary agency in charge of regulating and enforcing compliance to laws and regulations created out of necessity over the years , now..immediately check all actions and “consult with” and “to be informed by”— adhere to the dictates and demands of — the particular Industry that each EPA agency has formerly been in charge of regulating and enforcing compliance to law
Since when does a watchdog organization like the Environmental Protection Agency have to re-direct its core mission, and before taking any action to protect the environment, must, according to Pruitt’s new system, get clearance by the very industry that the EPA is obligated/empowered by law to regulate and oversee ?
Since Trump. And the corporate shell company aka the GOP covering for his corrupt ass. That’s when.
And if it sounds like I am exaggerating to some, Just Google Pruitt’s record attacking/suing the EPA over the laws he was/is tasked to uphold.
Nobody voted for this to happen to their neighborhoods, National Parks, rivers, oceans, air quality, waterways, and land. Nobody knowingly voted to put corporations in charge of the EPA, or to have the EPA answer to these industrial polluters and Global conglomerates.
This regulatory capture being promulgated by the Trump regime is the opposite of a democracy.
Not unlike the republican politicians that lie about healthcare when they claim to protect people by removing government from between a patient and their doctor (yes even Medicare idiocy),..
...when the truth is the GOP seeks to place the insurance cartel in charge of Healthcare and who receives or is denied healthcare as a permanent wall between any patient and their doctor with the profit motive determining who is deserving and who is not,…
...these two latest memos from Trump’s EPA head Scott Pruitt expose a near identical purpose:
The Environmental Protection Agency and all other agencies that protect the environment from polluting industries:
• Offices of Air and Radiation Land and Emergency Management;
• Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention;
• Water, Environmental Information;
• Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations; and
• Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization... must answer to…
the “stakeholders”
..not the people — we aren’t Trump’s or Pruitt’s or the GOP’s “stakeholders”
Grinding the most vulnerable people into the ground first..
...and now this. Scott Pruitt by fiat:
— April 2, 2017
Now, Scott Pruitt is ignoring his own agency's research in order to allow farmers to continue using this toxic pesticide.
In his letter in response to the action, Carper called Pruitt's ruling troubling, stating
"clear and compelling scientific and legal basis for reversing the decision is absent from the materials EPA released yesterday".
Dow applauds EPA's decision to deny the petition to revoke US food tolerances and cancel chlorpyrifos registration. [...]
"Farmworkers, who are predominantly poor and the majority are people of color, bear the brunt of poisonings from chlorpyrifos",
said Virginia Ruiz, director of Occupational and Environmental Health at Farmworker Justice, in a statement previously sent to Colorlines. In 2000, the agency banned it in households
Because Scott Pruitt fucking said so:
Responding to the petition from environmental groups, EPA says that
"the science addressing neurodevelopmental effects remains unresolved",
and further evaluation is warranted.
"Multiple independent studies have documented that exposure to chlorpyrifos impairs children's IQs, and EPA scientists' assessments of those studies concluded that levels of the pesticide found on food and in drinking water are unsafe".
This con job is precisely how the GOP/Climate deniers lie: “needs more research” and “the science remains unresolved” and “further evaluation is warranted”..,
..because.. never mind — Dow Chemicals is happy
# # #
There is a word for this kind of situation. This so-called “reform”: When the state merges with corporations and protection of corporate supremacy is paramount — along with the many indices that obtain @ the link
— imo
# # #
Just one more important thing. A kind of a reminder to myself and maybe others too before it slips away — again:
I often get kinda stupid when ranting on after watching and reading about the ongoing assault from the GOP, the Trump regime and his cabinet of corporate shills, and forget to research or even even think about the good resistance and the many movements by activists that are fighting back.
The never ending avalanche of misinformation coupled with conspiracy theories promulgated and spun-up by the far right fringe and “conservative” media designed to disguise the actual agenda of the GOP and its 1%er elite donors and sell what no majority of people would ever buy if properly informed
Fox “News” has made a lot of money and gained even more political clout dedicated to exactly this purpose. I should have learned to know and remember this by now.
Here are a few encouraging reports of enduring resistance:
♦ Environmental groups challenge Trump over nervous system toxin used on California crops | April 5, 2017 from the Sacramento Bee