In a previous post, titled Let Them Breathe Money, I addressed Tennessee First District Congressman Phil Roe’s opposition to safeguards that protect us from the well documented negative effects of burning coal, the dirtiest, most poisonous fuel on the planet. As usual, Roe’s excuse for his position boiled down to a version of “it’s the economy, stupid.” To be fair, when rationalizing his opposition to federal protection for the environment, Roe also trots out the ideology of small government, claiming that rules requiring polluters to refrain from polluting are just “ridiculous red tape.”
Today I want to up the ante in this conversation. I invite you, Dear Reader, to consider whether Roe’s stance on the environment isn’t merely misguided or stupid, but is perhaps just plain evil. (You know, the adjective that means “profoundly immoral, depraved, bad, wrong”).
Roe has repeatedly spoken out against environmental protection regulations. He frequently does so by manipulating voter fears with misleading arguments and economic terror messages.
Whether it is toxins from coal or hydraulic fracking, or the Clean Water Act, or the globally important environmental progress represented by the Paris Climate Pact — Roe can be counted upon to pay lip service to environmental values, while keeping his pledge to the Republican-Industrial Complex by voting against environmental regulations and telling us that government is too big and that we just can’t afford to protect our planet the way we wish or the way scientists tell us it needs to be done.
Maybe Roe wants to stay in Washington for another term because the air is cleaner there? The Capitol Power Plant that provides electricity to federal buildings in Washington stopped burning coal and switched to natural gas in 2009, Roe’s first full-year in office.
Or maybe Roe doesn’t care so much about toxin-induced birth defects or childhood neurological damage because, as he astonishingly rationalized when declaring his opposition to rules requiring health insurance to cover reproductive health, he and his wife are personally “fixed” and so won’t be having any more children. [I blush writing this, but Roe’s own amazingly tone-deaf words best demonstrate why East Tennessee needs new Congressional leadership, preferably from a different party.] Here is the full published quote from Roe’s own lips:
“I have been fixed. My wife has been fixed, okay? We’ve got three kids … Both of us have determined if we thought we had to raise another kid right now, we would jump off the Capitol, head first into the parking lot, face first. You got the idea, don’t want any more kids.”
A man who says he’d rather commit suicide than raise another child wants us to give him another term in Washington, so he can make more laws that affect all our children?
The man obviously needs a long vacation. I think wise voters will give him one.
Let me circle around a bit with a thought experiment. Ask yourself this question: what is the smallest possible government?
Answer: The smallest possible government is a single person — a dictator.
Now, in case you think the Republican small government mantra couldn’t go that far, give some thought to the extraordinary admiration that the current occupant of the Oval Office has heaped upon various dictators.
Then consider today’s news about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. According to a leaked internal memo, Mr. Pruitt wants to make all the environmental decisions about water quality by himself. Keep in mind that Pruitt is a lawyer, not an environmental scientist. No matter. Unless he too loses his head and is fired in the chaotic Washington merry-go-round that now masquerades as government, I expect that soon Mr. Pruitt’s unofficial new title will be Emperor of the Environment.
BTW — Congressman Roe is on record in the past as praising Pruitt.
East Tennessee is too wonderful to leave its future in the disrespectful hands of someone who acts like the purity of our environment should be for sale to the highest corporate bidder. .
Phil Roe does a much better job protecting the interests of billionaires and big corporations than he does protecting our environment. Unlike corporations, which exist on paper and eat, drink, and breathe only money, the people of East Tennessee have real bodies and we eat food, drink water, and breathe air. We appreciate the natural beauty of our surroundings and we understand that stewardship of our planet is not optional, because there is no place else to go when this earthly nest is fouled. It is our right — no, it is everyone’s right — to have an environment that is clean, pure, and wholesome. These rights are not for sale.
My body has had quite enough of Congressman Roe’s Fiddling While Coal Burns. How about yours?
It is time for some Responsible Change.