Just a few days ago, an exhaustive report by the Energy and Policy Institute revealed that public utilities have been aware of the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions and the use of coal as an energy fuel since the 1960s.
According to the study, in the 1970s, members of the Electric Power Research Institute, a group financed by the utility industry, testified before Congress that their own investigations have led them to believe that “the fossil fuels combustion will be essentially unacceptable, an important justification for expanding (...) solar energy options.” And by 1988, the same institute stated that, “There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is real.”
Frustratingly, regardless of its strong awareness of what today is humanity’s most pressing challenge, this same industry years later launched a national campaign to deny the climate crisis, and undermine any national and international efforts to fight it. Several of these companies joined forces with the fossil fuel industry in a successful push for the U.S. to renounce the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.
And today, Southern Company, the country’s third largest utility, persists on denying CO2 emissions are the main culprit in the climate crisis. Moreover, an important sector of this industry funds front groups that oppose any CO2 limits on coal-burning plants.
This kind of goes hand in glove with those discovered emails from Exxon that proved the oil giant knew full well that their product was killing the planet and then spent millions to keep that information from the public.
This shit drives me crazy, and is a strong indication of why we so desperately need the EPA.
And currently Trump's administration is in the process of dismantling it.
It is pretty much like this in everything. Pharma drugs coming on to market and manufacturer knows full well the side effects. New auto? Manufacturer knows full well the problems in design. Over the last 50yrs we have tried to push for things that make sense, work, last, do not harm, etc. It is a major fight to demand safety over profit. Bury all the unsightly electrical lines, use little coal and gas, use wind, sun, water for energy. And REGULATE. Fund EPA. DEMAND that we take care of the earth.
ReplyDeleteSorry Gryphen, but your fellow Alaaaasakas vote for this shit. They won't be happy until 2/3s of the private homes sink Hopefully you are renting.
ReplyDeleteIf you think Pruitt's EPA is bad now, just you wait.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scant-oversight-corporate-secrecy-preceded-us-weed-killer-crisis_us_598b6e7ae4b0d793738c62bd?section=us_green
"As the U.S. growing season entered its peak this summer, farmers began posting startling pictures on social media: fields of beans, peach orchards and vegetable gardens withering away.
The photographs served as early warnings of a crisis that has damaged millions of acres of farmland. New versions of the herbicide dicamba developed by Monsanto and BASF, according to farmers, have drifted across fields to crops unable to withstand it, a charge authorities are investigating.
As the crisis intensifies, new details provided to Reuters by independent researchers and regulators, and previously unreported testimony by a company employee, demonstrate the unusual way Monsanto introduced its product. The approach, in which Monsanto prevented key independent testing of its product, went unchallenged by the Environmental Protection Agency and nearly every state regulator."
There was a cover-up, slack oversight, whatever way back when Round-Up was first approved. We're paying for that now. Monsanto is just trying to speed up the process for profits.
"Monsanto’s Vice President of Global Strategy, Scott Partridge, said the company prevented the testing [for volatility] because it was unnecessary. He said the company believed the product was less volatile than a previous dicamba formula that researchers found could be used safely.
“To get meaningful data takes a long, long time,” he said. “This product needed to get into the hands of growers.”"
Profit over safety.
"In the end, the EPA approved the product without the added testing in September. It said it made its decision after reviewing company-supplied data, including some measuring volatility."
And there you have it.
"Some states are now forming task forces to determine what should be done about the damage."
Oh, good old "states' rights", the Republicans best fall back. Now that the EPA isn't doing their job, the states will have to step up to the plate. They'll be spending money they don't have to re-invent the wheel every other state is doing, with mixed results across the nation. So we'll have a checkerboard of what will and will not be allowed for use in each state.
Yeah, Bannon must be ecstatic. His plan to dismantle the U.S. government is moving along at an even faster pace than he anticipated.
Fuck him.
I hope he is on Air Force One with Trump when it crashes in a ball of flames.