The recent West Virginia chemical spill should be a stark
reminder that Republicans' greatest assault of all is on Americans'
water supply that is about to get a…
After Freedom Industries’ negligence sent 7,500 gallons of a chemical used in coal processing into the Elk River and exposed multiple failures in oversight and compliance, repugicans in Congress went into defensive deregulation mode. The spill sent over a hundred people to the hospital and prevented over 300,000 from using water for anything other than flushing human waste, and prompted calls for stronger regulations to protect Americans’ water supplies. Speaker of the House John Boehner immediately responded and said “We have enough regulations on the books. What the administration ought to be doing is doing their jobs.” Besides blaming the President for the West Virginia chemical spill and the repugican cabal’s ten-year assault on environmental regulations, Boehner said he was “confident regulations were in place to protect people.” However, he quickly changed the subject to deregulation and stressed the Republican “need to look at those regulations that are cumbersome, over-the-top, and costing the economy jobs. That is where our focus is, and should continue.”
It was not the first, or last, time Boehner shifted blame for repugicans’ deregulation frenzy on President Obama for the West Virginia chemical spill, and his critique of environmental regulations is nothing new for House repugicans who voted 109 times to undermine environmental efforts in 2013. Boehner likely blamed the President because he was loath to admit he is the House’s top recipient of contributions from the dirty coal industry that netted him $600,025 according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Boehner also received a donation from the company responsible for the chemical leak and reiterated it was the administration’s fault by asserting that “cumbersome, over-the-top” regulations were not being properly enforced. Boehner is right on that point, and it is down to repugicans cutting the EPA budget over the past three years.
The repugicans have wanted to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency since its inception, and since they have been unable to kill the agency outright, or undo regulations already in place, they resorted to the next best tactic; withhold funding for inspections and enforcement. For example, over the past two years funding for water quality has been slashed by 29%, and overall repugicans boasted they cut the EPA budget by 20% since 2010 to spur job creation. Where are the jobs? Starving the EPA of funding to enforce what woefully inadequate protections for clean water has not and will not create jobs, but it has not stopped repugicans from garnering support for deregulation and cuts to the one agency tasked with protecting Americans’ water supply, or to insert new restrictions on the EPA.
In the omnibus spending bill Congress just sent to President Obama’s desk, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (r-KY) inserted language that prevents the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA, and the Obama administration from tightening rules on what kind of chemicals mining companies can dump in streams and waterways. The purpose of the rider is to lock in a shrub junta “loophole” that allows the coal industry to keep dumping industrial waste in rivers and streams according to Dalal Aboulhosn of the Sierra Club. Other repugican riders in the spending bill weaken the EPA’s ability to regulate permits for coal companies by reducing its time for reviews, and cuts its power to enforce chemical pollution standards by limiting the agency’s access to evidence of violations. Yet another rider slashes EPA funding and its ability to conduct aerial monitoring of mining related facilities like chemical treatment plants, under the 402 section of the Clean Water Act, which covers chemical pollution.
According to the largest recipient of coal industry donations in the House, John Boehner says “we have enough regulations on the books. What the administration ought to be doing is doing their jobs,” but Boehner and repugicans are doing everything in their power to prevent the administration and EPA from “doing their jobs.” The repugicans are too invested in the coal, oil, and gas industry to let the EPA do their jobs and enforce regulations Boehner said “were in place to protect people.” The repugicans are about as interested in protecting the American people as they are raising taxes on their wealthy donors, and the riders in the spending bill sitting on the President’s desk prove that when Boehner and repugicans say “protect people,” they mean dirty energy people.
President Obama is not responsible for dumping 7,500 gallons of coal industry chemicals in the Elk River, a lack of strident EPA regulations, timely inspections, regulatory enforcement, and negligence on the part of Freedom Industries are and Boehner knows it. He also knows House repugicans voted 109 times in 2013 to undermine environmental regulations and that repugicans inserted at least three anti-clean water “riders” at the last minute into the omnibus government funding bill. Boehner really has some gall to have spent the past two weeks decrying regulations and promising to eliminate them as an anti-poverty measure, and then blame the President for not enforcing environmental regulations. It has been all repugicans all the time either killing regulations or preventing the EPA from implementing and enforcing those already on the books by slashing funding necessary to, as Boehner says, “protect the people.” What the people need is protection from repugicans because in their drive to enrich the dirty energy industry they are deliberately poisoning a basic necessity for human life; clean water.
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