The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt announced the withdrawal of the Clean Power Plan. Pruitt stated that he will sign on this on Tuesday the 10th during an event in Kentucky with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Clean Power Plan is an Obama-era regulation sating that states must meet carbon emission reduction standards and gave states an incentive if they chose to get begin with plans of finding more renewable resources. The plan estimates 2,700 to 6,600 premature deaths and 140,000 to 150,000 asthma attacks in children. The current EPA stated that the plan was about "picking winners and losers" and that you can't apply these policies to Energy Reduction regulations. Pruitt has been repeatedly asked on if he has considered the health consequences of repealing the plan. He has not responded with a firm answer but stating that the plan costs jobs and in his words jobs need to be created alongside clean water and air. Former EPA employees have spoken out against these claims calling them "backwards thinking."
The article comes from multiple sources at CNN and speaks in a non biased tone. In my opinion, it is concerning and even angering that the head of an organization founded to help the planet is now repealing laws that would do just that. Scott Pruitt is abusing his power by trying to push his own political agenda through and not doing the job that he was appointed to do. How are we supposed to fight climate change and save the earth if the people who are put in charge of doing this deny that the event is even going on. Right now the EPA is more concerned with creating jobs than it is about its own citizens health and the health of the planet. While I strongly and wholeheartedly agree that it is important to create jobs, I believe that sacrificing the public good is not the way to do it.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/09/politics/environmental-protection-agency-scott-pruitt-clean-power-plan/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment