Donald Trump’s four horsemen of the environmental apocalypse from left: Rex Tillerson, Rick Perry, Ryan Zinke and Scott Pruitt. (Photo collage: MPG)
The nefarious gang of four includes Rick Perry as Energy Secretary, Scott Pruitt as Environmental Protection Secretary, Ryan Zinke as Interior Secretary and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.
The president-elect sailed into office on repeated lies, fake news, misinformation and Russian hacking, but nowhere is lying more prevalent than in the oil industry, which now has a clear path to frack for oil with abandon.
For anyone to stand there and say–with a straight face no less–that it’s safe to shoot upwards of 600 chemicals–most “top secret” and toxic–into the earth beneath streams and lakes from which thousands of communities draw their drinking water, is the lie of all lies.
There is no such thing as “safe fracking.” Period. End of story.
It’s an oxymoron, with epic emphasis on moron and, more specifically, the morons who seek to convince us they can pull a rabbit out of a hat, whilst their rabbit cage sits in full view right beneath them.
One thing is certain, fracking poisons everything it touches and there is no bigger proponent of the process than ExxonMobil.
For the oil companies to say otherwise at this point is as comical as watching Dan Aykroyd’s classic “SNL” skit. He plays a steadfast Julia Child, attempting to remain calm and collected after accidentally slicing open an artery.
To try and convince everyone that “all is well,” when it comes to violently injecting hundreds of chemicals into the ground, precariously close to what’s left of our clean water, is to insult even the lowest forms of intelligence.
What would’ve happened if this most recent leak in North Dakota hadn’t been discovered by a land owner? How long would it have gone on? How many miles of riverbed would now be uninhabitable, let alone undrinkable?
The oil companies, in their stubborn and obtuse refusal to “look forward,” have turned our entire country into one giant energy addict.
We’re scrounging around like strung-out junkies in the futile hope of getting just one more fix of a finite resource–one that ultimately has no future, other than destruction and devastating environmental consequences.
Our seemingly incurable addiction to fossil fuels, prevents us from seeing the bigger picture; the abundance of clean, green, natural energy sources all around us. We simply just can’t be bothered to take the time to look.
Anyone who claims fracking is necessary for job creation hasn’t visited half of Europe, where wind, solar and hydro power are being converted into industries of the future. Thousands of new jobs are being created that can’t be exported.
Green energy possess unlimited potential to not only keep us in the lifestyle to which we’ve become accustomed, but to increase profits, tenfold, for those wise enough to make the move.
As if the United States wasn’t already the laughing stocks of the free world, the Trump administration has assembled the biggest bunch of climate deniers and energy exploiters in the nation’s history to watch over our land, air and water.
“With these nominations, it’s clearer than ever that Donald Trump is hoping to install the most anti-environmental cabinet in our nation’s history,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, in a statement.
Zinke, 55, a Montana Congressman, has consistently voted against environmentalists, according to published reports, although he has opposed selling off federal lands and has at least acknowledged that climate change is possible.
Even so, the League of Conservation Voters has given him a 3 percent rating on a scale of 100. The Center for American Progress listed Zinke on its “anti-parks caucus.”
You may recall, Perry wanted to abolish the Department of Energy when he ran for president in 2012. How is he supposed to administer it now for the benefit of the American people?
Naming Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency is like putting Attila the Hun in charge of the local village. It’s great if your goal is raping and pillaging.
Pruitt has never met an environmental regulation he’s liked. He’s an ardent opponent of federal controls on power plant pollution and carbon emissions. He also believes a scientific case can be made that man-made climate change doesn’t exist. It can’t and it does.
As Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt didn’t even bother to express his position on an EPA matter in his own words. He just copied the text verbatim from an oil lobbyist’s letter and sent it to the EPA on his own stationary. He also opposed federal efforts to expand the number of Oklahoma species endangered by fossil fuel production.
Tillerson is the Darth Vader of big oil. He joined the company in 1975 as a production engineer and worked his way up to the executive suite. He’s well aware that ExxonMobil’s own researchers saw the danger to the environment from fossil fuels as far back as 1981.
ExxonMobil has spent $31 million since 1998 to fund climate denier think tanks and politicians, while keeping its research out of the hands of the concerned public, according to Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action Fund.
“It’s no leap to wonder if the company — the largest fracking company in the U.S. — is doing the same thing to mislead and deceive the public around fracking safety,” she writes in The Huffington Post.
“The oil and gas industry’s spin machine has worked for years to ensure that fracking — an extreme form of fossil fuel extraction — has a place in the future energy mix. The industry spent at least $721 million in 2014 pushing its fossil fuel agenda in Washington, D.C. The industry’s aggressive lobbying and the inclusion of fossil fuels in the Obama administration’s climate action plan cannot be a coincidence.
Years from now, when we’ve finally embraced the power of the sun, wind and water to fulfill our energy needs–with stentorian results no less–those who sought to profit from the destruction of our planet, will be looked upon with pity, shame and fury.
Although, in light of the election results, that may take longer to realize than any of us will ever live to see.
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