Ding Dong the Witch is Dead
Finally, we are rid of Scott Pruitt. Supposedly he resigned, but the world learned of it from a tweet by President Trump.
In one of my other blog post, I talked about how Scott Pruitt is a Trump wannabe or even Trump’s mini-me. I won’t duplicate the content of that, but I will reiterate that the amount of “infractions” tolerated of Scott’s bad judgment were so far beyond Trump put up with from anyone else. The deputy director will be taking over for Scott in the short run. Philosophically he is the same as Pruitt. Climate change isn’t real. Remove all controls and limits on air pollution, water pollution and so on. I guess the only improvement would be if he did it honestly.
According to The New York Times, in Pruitt’s final hours he signed papers that created a loophole in emission standards. Fitzgerald Glider is a company that takes old diesel engines built before newer strict emission standards came into force. Often these engines come from wrecked trucks and are put into a brand new body. It generates up to 55 times as much air pollution as a standard diesel engine. It puts out 13 times more nitrogen oxide than the 580,000 cars from Volkswagon’s emission scandal, which went on for nearly a decade. An unusual combination of companies lobbied against it was the American Lung Association, The Environmental Defense Fund, United Parcel Service and competing manufacturer Volvo. Also, comments from the public, including moms and family businesses were almost entirely against lifting the cap. They were totally ignored. Pretty much the only proponent for the lifting of the cap was Fitzgerald Glider. This only happened after Fitzgerald donated tens of thousands of dollars to Tennessee Republican candidate for governor, Diane Black. She then approached Pruitt about the change. He tried to push the loophole through last year, but the White House slowed Pruitt’s roll by requesting a more comprehensive study of the environmental and economic impact of the change. Which for the Trump administration is unusual in and of itself. Regardless of the impact to the air that we breathe and the effect on our children and grandchildren, as is usual for the G.O.P. the profit of a company outweighs the needs of the people. Leave it to Pruitt to go out in Republican style.
