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Monday, July 25, 2011

2012 / Enviro House Republicans Summon Captain Pollution, Try to Destroy the World

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 1:15 PM

Holy shit. Wonkette brings news of "more than 40 anti-environment amendments and policy riders [House Republicans have added] to the Interior Appropriations bill." This is the second time I've made this Republican-to-cartoon analogy today, but this really does sound like a plot created by a Captain Planet villain. Here are a few of the amendments and riders:

·Blocking EPA from regulating deadly pollution like mercury, smog, and soot from power plants and cement plants. The pollution that these facilities would then be allowed to spew could cause up to 27,800 premature deaths.
·Opening up lands immediately next to the Grand Canyon to uranium mining, despoiling one of the most iconic landscapes in the United States, and potentially contaminating its waters with radioactivity.
·Stripping Clean Water Act protections for the drinking water sources of 117 million Americans.
·Driving endangered plants and animals to extinction, by preventing federal agencies from listing any species as endangered or protecting their critical habitats.

The Sierra Club has posted a form to help you contact your representative. I would encourage you to do so.

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Comments (10) RSS

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It's hard to imagine a greater evil. The party of "pro-life" wants to kill everything except greed!

Posted by Vince on July 25, 2011 at 1:39 PM

@1 And fetuses. Greed and fetuses.

Posted by Hernandez

on July 25, 2011 at 1:44 PM

These motherfucking Republicans make my goddamned blood boil every fucking day. Talk about premature deaths, they're going to cause one in me by high fucking blood pressure.

Posted by ryanayr on July 25, 2011 at 2:00 PM

what should i be encouraging jim mcdermott to do that he isn't already doing?

Posted by Max Solomon on July 25, 2011 at 2:01 PM

I secretly dream of a live action Captain Planet movie...

Posted by BoyfriendoftheYear on July 25, 2011 at 2:14 PM

What's really stressing me out about this is how much this kind of bullshit highlights the utter disenfranchisement of people who actually care about anything besides wars and abortions.

I live in Washington now and I know full well that my senators and representative will already be staunchly opposing this. Back when I lived in Texas, I wrote to my senators and representative quite frequently, but there, too, it was an exercise in futility because I already knew that my representative, Lloyd Doggett, would already be on board with whatever I wanted (he was representing Austin, you understand) while my senators were, almost without fail, sponsors of whatever legislative atrocity I was trying to oppose.

All my adult life I've tried to be a responsible citizen in a Jeffersonian manner, and the entire time it has been utterly pointless.

Ugh.

Posted by balderdash

on July 25, 2011 at 2:39 PM

in this country, we have two political parties. we have a conservative party... the democrats. and we have a nihilist party... the republicans. republicans truly no longer believe in the legitimacy of political organization or even society itself. they are literally against the infrastructure of society in any and all forms.

Posted by philosophy school dropout on July 25, 2011 at 3:12 PM

@4: tell all your friends and relatives back in Cincinnati to register their disgust with Steve Chabot, Jean Schmidt, and John Boehner. They have plenty to undo.

Posted by emma's bee on July 25, 2011 at 3:12 PM

The GOP will get their way and Obama will sign it (you know, he wants to work across the aisle)

But sure, contact your representative if it makes you feel good. Just remember, if you're not a Fortune 500 company don't expect anyone in congress to listen.

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on July 25, 2011 at 3:14 PM