Mitt Romney celebrated “Fock the Earth Day” with a major speech about the importance of regulations on fossil fuel production … that is, the importance of eviscerating them so as to please his fossil foolish contributors.
“Holding off on drilling in the Gulf, holding off on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, holding off on drilling in Alaska, trying to impose the federal government into ‘fracking’ regulations with regards to natural gas. Then, of course, all the regulations related to coal, making it harder to mine it, making it harder to use it.”
Yes, the evil Obama Administration — in Mitt’s campaign vitriol — actually wanted to create a breathing space in offshore drilling in the face of that pesky minor little Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf of Mexico. And, according to Mitt’s skewed representation, the Obama Administration has some form of skewed thinking that the Federal Government might have the capacity to create more economically and process effective oversight of the complicated natural gas fracking processes than would be the case with having 10s of states with differing rule sets and inspection regimes. And, well, how dare the Administration consider things like miner safety and pollution of surrounding areas when it comes to mining or have the arrogance to consider American citizens’ health and safety in following Supreme Court guidance for putting in standards for mercury and other emissions from coal facilities.
Mittens — and the rest of the fossil foolish propaganda machine — will not engage with some simple realities:
- Oil and natural gas production has soared during the Obama Administration;
- There are far more drilling rigs in operation today than ever during the Bush (either GHWB or GWB) Administrations;
- U.S. oil imports are down, along with increased U.S. production, under President Obama; and, in fact,
- The Obama Administration has opened up significant tracts of land for oil, natural gas, and coal exploitation.
In fact, when examining the Obama Administration record, with any sort of open-minded perspective, it is far from aggressively implementing environmental regulations that will strengthen the economy while strangling fossil foolish industries. In fact, the Administration’s “All of the Above” energy strategy provides innumerable paths for further enriching fossil foolish production on the backs of American health and with ever-worsening risks for catastrophic climate chaos. The inadequacies in the Obama Administration’s approach to economic, energy, and environmental issues pall in the face of the Republican Party’s unapologetic embrace of a recklessly backward looking embrace of dirty energy and attack on efforts to provide even a patina of protection for Americans via sensible regulatory oversight.
To paraphrase Mitt, Frack You, Mother Earth!
With no public events on 22 April 2012, Earth Day, Romey’s 23 April F— the Earth Day event occurred at the research facilities of one of the nation’s largest coal producers, Consol Energy,
Consol Energy is a billion-dollar natural gas and coal company based in Pennsylvania notorious for polluting American waterways, streams, and drinking water with toxic runoff from its plants. In 2011 alone, the company paid more than $200 million dollars in fines and settlements due to hundreds of violations of the Clean Water Act.
Consol’s money doesn’t only go to fines, it also goes to seeking to buy political influence. Consol Energy (via its PAC and its executives’ paychecks) has funneled significant resources into Romney’s campaign and its ‘unassociated’ super PAC. Is it any surprise, then, that
Romney gave a speech praising dirty coal power. At the same time, he attacked the landmark safeguards put into place to protect our air, our water, and the health of our families from the toxic pollution created by Consol’s own plants.
In other words, this week, instead of celebrating the planet, Romney pushed for policies that would poison it.
All in all, Romney’s 23 April 2012 was very much in the spirit of ‘F– the Earth Day’.
One of the critiques of “Earth Day” is that it is absurd to put aside one day for a patina of caring about humanity’s impact on the planetary system’s ability to support human civilization. When it comes to “Fock the Earth Day,” there won’t be anything to worry about if Mitt Romney is elected as the 21st century’s Republican Party’s objective is make every day a “Fock the Earth” event.
Related: Brad Johnson, Romney’s Earth Day Guru: Sarah Palin. From that:
“Romney’s energy and environmental platform calls for stripping EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and expanding oil-and-gas leasing to include areas that are currently off limits, including the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, among other measures,” The Hill’s Ben Geman writes.
Romney denied that global warming is caused by burning fossil fuels at a Consol Energy facility last year. Consol has given $5000 to the Romney campaign and $150,000 to the Romney SuperPAC.