It has been fascinating to watch the the elite media and Washington insiders reactions to the speed and efficiency of Trump’s transition team organization and appointee selection.
With so much happening so quickly, I wanted to keep an eye on one of the most troubling agencies under the Obama Administration: The Environmental Protection Agency. The response of the big government bureaucrats in the EPA is likely to offer a clue about how they are going to behave in other federal organizations.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall that 27% of federal employees claimed they would quit their jobs if Donald Trump was elected. However, instead of quitting, it’s more likely they’ll exit a little less gracefully.
In the case of the EPA, agency chief Gina McCarthy warned the incoming Trump administration’s failure to address climate change would leave the country in environmental and economic “paralysis.”
“If we place rancor over action, we will fall victim to our own paralysis,” McCarthy said.”The train to a global clean energy future has already left the station,” she told a packed ballroom at the National Press Club in Washington. And the U.S. cannot choose to be left behind.The Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate agenda, “marked a turning point” as a sign of U.S. commitment to combat global warming. But tackling climate change is bigger than any one regulation, she said.
Trump’s EPA transition team is being spear-headed by climate change skeptic Myron Ebell. The train may have left the station, but it is about to hit a yuge, T-shapped wall. Then, it will be replaced by the famous Trump Train!
In one of the most entertaining presentations ever offered by the EPA, McCarthy then continued and explained how all this regulation has been good for the country’s economy.
“Over the past eight years under President Obama’s leadership, we have taken tremendous strides forward in economic growth,” she said. “At the same time, we have made incredible progress in cutting pollution and protecting public health.”
I suspect the farmers and sportsmen along the Animas River, the residents of Flint, Michigan, and herdsmen in Wyoming would disagree with McCarthy about how awesome the EPA has been for either their health or the economy.
Additionally, the list of green energy company failures under Obama is staggering:
Evergreen Solar ($25 million)*SpectraWatt ($500,000)*Solyndra ($535 million)*Beacon Power ($43 million)*Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)SunPower ($1.2 billion)First Solar ($1.46 billion)Babcock and Brown ($178 million)EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*Amonix ($5.9 million)Fisker Automotive ($529 million)Abound Solar ($400 million)*A123 Systems ($279 million)*Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981)*Johnson Controls ($299 million)Schneider Electric ($86 million)Brightsource ($1.6 billion)ECOtality ($126.2 million)Raser Technologies ($33 million)*Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*Range Fuels ($80 million)*Thompson River Power ($6.5 million)*Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million)*GreenVolts ($500,000)Vestas ($50 million)LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million)Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*Navistar ($39 million)Satcon ($3 million)*Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million)*Mascoma Corp. ($100 million)(*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.)
Trump’s EPA appointees will have their work cut out for them when their train finally reaches McCarthy’s office. In fact, they can anticipate such a chilly reception from the nation’s eco-activists that it may reduce the global temperature average.
Activists have started petitions and held a public protest against Ebell’s role, and on Monday afternoon, the Sierra Club and several other groups were planning to project giant messages across the front of EPA headquarters.
I suspect those messages will feature many safety pins, as the bureaucratic environment within the EPA is about the only thing that is going to undergo a dramatic, rapid, and real climate change.
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