Scroll down a bit and you will come across a story by Tina Casey about an interview conducted over the weekend by George Stephanopoulos with Scott Pruitt, the rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth former attorney general of Oklahoma who has made killing the EPA his sworn duty. The fact that he is now the head of the EPA is further proof of our Fake President’s desire to take a wrecking ball to that organization. He is expected to sign an executive order tomorrow dismantling the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.
The Trump Who Stole Democracy told a rally last week, “As we speak, we are preparing new executive actions to save our coal industry and to save our wonderful coal miners from continuing to be put out of work. The miners are coming back.” Pruitt told Stephanopoulos the order will bring back jobs in the coal industry. “I think absolutely it will.”
Trump & Pruitt Are Liars
Both Trump and Pruitt are bold-faced liars and the person to prove it is Robert Murray. He is the owner of Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal company left in America since 50 others went bankrupt after 411 coal-fired electric generating plants were shuttered in America since 2008. The 77-year old Murray met privately with Trump in February. He tells The Guardian. “I suggested that he temper his expectations. Those are my exact words. He can’t bring them back.” Et tu, Robert?
Murray is a fierce defender of his right to dig coal and pollute the environment without restriction. He used his first meeting with Trump to urge the new president to repeal the Stream Protection Rule, a regulation put in place during the Obama administration to prevent coal companies from dumping mining debris into streams. Murray calls it “unlawful and destructive” attempt to “destroy our nation’s underground coal mines and put our nation’s coal miners out of work.”
Actually, Robert, it is an attempt to keep greedy mining companies from using the nation’s waterways as their private sewer system. If your neighbors started dumping their excrement on your front lawn, you would be the first to demand the government protect you from such immoral behavior, wouldn’t you? Why do you feel you have the right to use public waterways as your own personal leach field? Shouldn’t you be responsible for the costs associated with your destructive behavior?
Robert Murray & I
Robert and I have a history together. After I wrote a story critical of him a few months ago, he printed a copy of the story and sent it to my personal email account with a handwritten note to tell me he drives an old Ford Ranger. The inference was that somebody who drives a beat-up truck is just another person trying to survive in a tough economy. But here’s the difference, Robert. Ordinary citizens do not have the ear of the president and cannot seek to get the government to take action that will benefit them personally.
Murray has harsh words for former president Obama. “Barack Obama and his Democrat supporters were the greatest destroyers the United States of America has ever seen in its history. He destroyed reliable electric power in America, he destroyed low cost electric power in America, and he attempted to totally destroy the United States coal industry.” Gee, it’s always all about you, isn’t it Robert?
The Sierra Club Weighs In
Mary Anne Hitt is the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. She says Murray was right to think coal had a champion in Trump, but she doubts the industry can overturn all the regulations Obama has put in place, or that Trump can significantly revive the industry.
“I live in West Virginia and I understand that there is a lot of optimism among some that coal will make a comeback,” Hitt says, but doubts that Trump will be unable to reinvigorate the coal business. “The industry likes to point to pollution standards for the decline in jobs, but the reality is the market has markedly changed. Friends of the coal industry now populate the highest perches of our agencies and they will do their best to unwind clean air and water regulations and we will fight them every step of the way. But even if all their wishes come true, I don’t think there will be a big boost to the coal industry.”
Murray & Politics
Murray adds this bit of specious reasoning to his rant. “I live among these people. These are the people who fought the wars and built our country and they were forgotten by Democrats who had gone to Hollywood characters, liberal elitists and radical environmentalists. That’s all they represent today. They lost these quiet Americans. This was a victory for the working people,” he says.
Murray may have a point. After all, Trump has parked his rather ample posterior in the Oval Office while Hillary is still out looking for the truck that hit her. The problem for Trump now, though, is that he has to deliver on all the outrageous and irresponsible promises he made during the campaign. And if he doesn’t, the backlash from those who placed their hopes and trust in his false representations will be terrible and swift.
Trump now has the burden of governing rather than tweeting and running his mouth. So far, he has written a lot of checks he can’t cash and has proven to be a colossal failure as a leader. There is no likelihood either of those things will change in the foreseeable future.
Source: The Guardian | Photo Credit: The U.S. National Archives
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