From THINK PROGRESS GREEN:
The Koch brothers and the foundation they fund, Americans for Prosperity, are among the biggest backers of the right’s anti-environment movement, pushing for the repeal of environmental laws and regulations on both the state and federal level. Those efforts continued at AFP’s annual Defending the American Dream Summit this weekend, as attacks on the EPA came from seemingly every prominent speaker and in multiple panels.
Former pizza magnate Herman Cain (R) drew some of his largest cheers when he declared that the EPA “needs an attitude adjustment,” while former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) decried the burden of federal regulations on job creation. But while Romney has insisted in the past that Republicans aren’t “anti-regulation” and other conservatives have insisted that the party doesn’t want to defund the EPA, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) — the Congressman from Koch — made it clear during an environmental panel that that was exactly his goal [...]:
Pompeo is hardly the only Republican to state plainly that defunding the EPA is one of the GOP’s primary goals. In July, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) said the EPA “would be discontinued” if the GOP gained control of the Senate and the White House.
Pompeo, however, seems perplexed that President Obama and House and Senate Democrats aren’t willing to do the Kochs’ bidding by joining him in his anti-environmental campaign. Perhaps that’s because they have no desire to aid the efforts of what Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) called the “most anti-environmental House of Representatives in American history.”
(Video at THINK PROGRESS link)
Not a whole lotta point to having things to buy if nobody can breathe the air to go and buy them. And how about looking into jobs to eliminate all the waste still being generated?
Naw, that’d be too easy. Better to strip mine the planet, and get it over with quick. Or maybe they’re banking on the gateway from Terra Nova! Go back 80 million years and pollute THAT Earth to death! (Sorry, Terra Nova is on right now. Not great, but okay.)
but what if koch industries plans on going into the gas mask business?
i’m very disappointed in terra nova. i thought it had promise, and i love, love, love jason o’mara, possibly the handsomest man on tv. the special effects are good, but the writing is almost cartoonish.
What?!? Talk of defunding/abolishing the EPA is appalling and shockingly reckless. If anything, the agency should be strengthened and augmented. This post has piqued my interest and I plan to do a little digging.
then my job here is done. i find stories i think are interesting, and i just point them out to people in hopes that they either can enlighten me about it, or that they will do some research and find out more so they can inform other people.
I guess it’s best Richard Nixon is not there anymore to watch his EPA being assaulted by his party.
the rethugs have more or less wiped nixon from their memory. the only rethuglican president in the 20th century was st. ronnie.
Nixon was positively progressive compared to these guys…….
Even St. Ronnie was!
It’s just foggy over here, Nonnie (I’m sure you can run with all kinds of puns about that one
I know St. Ronnie of the Cold War was a union-busting conservative, but didn’t he also raise taxes and run up a deficit? He did a lot of things today’s righties have conniptions about, but they have selective memory….
i know that, and you know that, but the teabaggers and koch-conspirators will never admit it, even to themselves. i’m just glad that st ronnie spared you for mentioning it and didn’t get you with one of his heavenly lightning bolts.
My family was in the Solidarnosc movement in Poland, so I get a special Reagan indulgence
these guys can’t even spell progressive.
Oh sure … relying on business to take care of the environment is like the warden handing over the prison keys to the inmates. These guys are doing everything possible to make sure I vote against them.
the fox guarding the henhouse. even if most of the corporations were truly worried about the environment, all it takes is a few bad ones to make a really big mess that can affect millions of people. that would be bad enough, but it seems that most corporations care about their greed rather than anything else.
And this is why the U.S. looks like a giant case of herpes:
http://www.npr.org/news/graphics/2011/10/toxic-air/#4.00/39.00/-84.00
the places with no dots are the places where nobody lives.
I can still remember a family vacation back in 59 ti go to Disneyland. The first full day in LA we got an explanation from our host that those thick gray clouds were a daily event, just blanketing everything in a stinky smokey mess. The goper view would be more like the Clampits: “Come on Granny, out there in Californie they got smogs”…”What’s that Jed?”….”Well. it’s kinda like a small hog”.
I wonder, if the air pollution comes back full force like that, will people then realize that they are foolish to support this libertarian “let’s do away with all regulation!” agenda? Or will their attitude still be “Well, it’s my own fault that I didn’t make enough money to live in one of those air-conditioned bunkers!”
who knows? they’ll be coughing so hard, we won’t understand a word they’re saying!
The first time ever that I might be grateful for smog.
i’m starting to think the only way to get through to these people is to scare the shit out of them. paint them an ugly picture of what will happen to their children’s health if they allow the rethugs to get rid of regulations. they don’t seem to respond to general facts about the environment or climate change, but they do seem to respond when their kids might have health risks. look how some of the righties went nuts over the gardisil bullshit.
Koch Brothers Libertarians. Nah. Fascists Yes!
i think there’s a difference between david and charles. david is more of a libertarian. charles is the fascist. both are asswipes.