It is difficult to keep track of all the #WINNING that I enjoyed this past week, between the implosion of RussiaGate and the IRS apology to Tea Party groups.
Personally, I am savoring President Trump’s efforts to reverse course on Obama’s toxic domestic and foreign policies. Trump’s regulatory rollbacks, as well as his nixing of the Paris Climate Accord and EPA head Scott Pruitt’s ending the “Clean Power Plan”, has already helped fuel the American economic engine.
Yet, California’s politicos cannot embrace the new, political climate. Governor Jerry Brown is now threatening lawfare over the Trump administration’s environmental policies.
Brown, a virulent Trump opponent, told reporters Tuesday that he will sue the president for nixing the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era regulation Republicans believe hurt the coal industry. He claims the tactic is akin to Republican efforts to hold up climate policies during the Obama-era.“First of all, we can go to court and block his efforts and we are doing that. Just like the Republicans tried to block [President Barack] Obama’s efforts,” Brown said. Republican attorneys general sued to hold up the Clean Power Plan, but the lawsuit was suspended after Trump rolled back the plan earlier this year.Democratic attorneys general are now where Republicans were during the Obama administration: working to derail their political opponent’s agenda.
Well, Brown can certainly try. It is interesting to note that the arguments of 18 state attorneys general, led by California Democrat Xavier Becerra,that the monthly payments are required under Obamacare law and cutting them off will harm consumers were just denied by a judge. Brown’s threats may hold even less sway as Americans see the nation enjoy a return to fiscal sanity, and that the EPA’s policy adjustments are not creating the death and destruction touted by eco-activists.
Brown and his merry band of green justice warriors may want to brace themselves for a prolonged legal engagement. The Environmental Protection Agency has formally identified its policy priorities, and climate change is not one of them.
In fact, the phrase “climate change” does not appear in the agency’s draft four-year strategic plan, a 38-page document quietly released for public comment last week.The three priorities outlined in the plan are consistent with EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s public comments about how he plans to run the agency: focus on the “core mission” of clean air, land and water; “rebalance” the federal role in environmental regulation, shifting more of the responsibility to states; and enforce laws “as Congress intended.”What doesn’t appear in the agency’s strategic plan for 2018 through 2022 is any mention of the words climate change or the causes behind it, including carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions.
As a Californian, I might suggest Brown turn his attention to the state’s crumbing infrastructure….including the Oroville Dam, which still is not completely repaired (though the rainy season will be starting soon), and which has seen repair costs almost double to $500 million.
The cost of repairing the crippling damage to Oroville Dam’s spillways caused by last winter’s fierce storms has almost doubled, state water officials said Thursday.Kiewit, the Nebraska-based construction firm that has the main contract to rebuild the main spillway and emergency spillway at Oroville, the nation’s tallest dam, estimated in its winning bid in April that the work would cost at least $275 million. But the price tag has now grown to at least $500 million, said Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for the Department of Water Resources.
However, engaging in eco-drama is probably more fun. However, considering the President’s winning streak, the fun probably won’t last.
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