Remember “Lost in Space”? Not only is it an apt metaphor for the place we are currently trapped – trying to save ourselves from existential disaster, a schmuck leader and lots of running around flailing our arms – but it provides a fabulous meme for the capping of a horrific campaign to push us further along the path of climate disaster. The “Endangerment Finding” came from the EPA (NIxon got something right) in 2009 and codified the idea that carbon pollution, specifically in this case regarding mixed greenhouse gasses, “threaten both the public health and the public welfare of current and future generations”. It seems amazing to me that it took until 2009 to decide this, but okay. Breathing pollution is bad. Sounds toothless but it actually ensured that the federal government had to regulate emissions from cars, power plants and carbon industries. In other words, we couldn’t just keep ignoring climate change. In case you missed it, that same EPA, now under the leadership of a former fracking industry executive, just rescinded that finding. Well, shit.
There are a few things to unpack about this horrific development. The first is that it is not the usual capricious bull-in-a-china-shop activity of the Cabinet of Monstrosities. This is the icing on a cake 15 plus years in the baking, thanks to the misguided insanity, greed, denial and zealotry of people like Russell Vought. This has been a terrifyingly well played long game with too many motivations to untangle. You can include lining the pockets of the carbon industry, forcing a rabid anti-regulatory agenda (never mind the hypocrisy of all the things they are clamoring to regulate when it suits them) and furthering an anti-science ideology – talk about long game. If it wasn’t so deeply evil and destructive, you could almost admire them for the ruthless and effective execution of their diabolical plan – despite the fact that they couldn’t have pulled it off if they didn’t have an outrageously pliant executive and his lickspittle congress. We could use some of this on the left.
The next is that while it is significant and visible, it is only one piece in the bigger puzzle of our descent. ConDon also just signed an executive order forcing the US military to use as much coal generated power as possible. Um. I would point out that the Republican obsession with free market supremacy should have real issues with this direct government intervention, but we know hypocrisy rules. This comes on the heels of forcing multiple coal plants that were on their way out, or already mothballed, to continue operating, despite astonishing costs to do so and no one but the handful of coal execs who will profit seeing it as anything but a blatant boondoggle. Speaking of coal execs, it is worth noting that all of the so-called protections in the industry do not protect the workers. They shield owners and management while sacrificing the people being ruined by the very industry they very weirdly ardently defend. It is just so strange. By the way, you can find something – humor, irony, absurdity, take your pick – in the tidbit that Trump announced the military mandate at a ceremony where the Washington Coal Club (too many jokes) presented him with a trophy, an actual trophy, naming him the “Undisputed Champion of Clean, Beautiful Coal”. I know, it just defies belief.
We also have to note that this capstone to all of these efforts are moving us almost literally backwards. If you largely leave the global south out of the conversation – they have way bigger problems – we are rapidly falling behind, well, everybody. The EU has dramatically cut their carbon use and pollution, doing so well they are ahead of the timeline laid out by the Paris Accord. You remember the Paris Accord, the international pact to reduce emissions widely considered the first legitimate global effort to address climate change? The one that Trumpster pulled us out of? Yeah, that one. You know who else is now actually lowering their emissions? China. Yep, the ever vilified notorious polluter and whipping boy for irresponsible industry. China. They are now officially kicking our ass not only in pollution reduction but in clean energy production. So much for America First.
The last thing, and one that genuinely puzzles me, is the brainless attack on clean energy that seems to go hand in hand with support of carbon. Oh, I get it. If you are doing your best to prop up the worst ways to generate energy, it would seem to make sense to remove the competition. But it really doesn’t. We know carbon is dumb. It costs more, is the worst polluter and is finite. But there are powerful people determined to protect that power, and their wealth, by keeping dumb alive. Fine. Deregulate, manipulate the market, lie about impacts, etc. All of that is almost guaranteed to keep us converting carbon to pollution until we use it all up or burn down the world, whichever comes first. But as our power needs rise faster than ever in history – I found out recently that data centers now account for seven per cent of total consumption and that demand is growing exponentially – why not go ahead and let clean energy do its thing. It is clearly a bridge too far to expect that such activity should be encouraged (green energy is a scam!) but to actively undo what can be seen by even the most rabid renewables haters as useful is just weird. We need more electricity. Wind and solar give us more. If we don’t have more, prices will go up, which pisses everybody off. And since carbon is already protected they get theirs either way so what the fuck? But not content to stop new renewables, they are freezing projects that are already almost done. Billions of dollars already spent essentially wasted and much needed power generation lost. This smacks of petty vindictiveness to me and takes dumb to a whole new level. The fact that is entirely unsurprising makes it no less offensive.
The final irony is that rescinding the Endangerment Finding places us all in greater danger. Sigh. Thanks for reading.