Tag Archives: governor-rick

There’s new evidence that facts really do make a difference.

by FrancesRosas Posted on January 5, 2018

On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke held a press conference to discuss the Department of the Interior’s intentions for drilling rights in American-controlled waters. In brief: The Arctic, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and possibly parts of the Pacific are pretty much all fair game now. The new policy would encompass “the largest number of lease sales ever proposed,” Zinke said.

It’s a direct take-back of the plan that the Obama administration finalized in November 2016. Those rules, which protected the Arctic and Atlantic seas from new drilling, were supposed to hold until 2022. But President Trump has long claimed the legal authority, and intention, to reverse it.

Conservation groups will almost certainly challenge this new draft plan in court. And a bipartisan group of local and state officials also oppose new drilling in some of these areas. In June, 14 House Republicans issued a joint letter opposing drilling off the Atlantic. Florida Governor Rick Scott joined the opposition Thursday, saying that his “top priority is to ensure that Florida’s natural resources are protected.”

Overall, more than 100 lawmakers — along with plenty of governors, attorneys general, and the U.S. Defense Department — oppose the plan.

Just last week, the Interior Department’s rollback of drilling safety regulations after the 2009 Deepwater Horizon spill cited their “unnecessary … burden” on industry.

Source: 

There’s new evidence that facts really do make a difference.

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777 days later, Congress hasn’t lifted a finger for Flint

by LizaPerkins744 Posted on June 10, 2016

777 days later, Congress hasn’t lifted a finger for Flint

By on Jun 10, 2016Share

It’s been 777 days since Michigan switched Flint’s water supply from Detroit to Flint River and residents began complaining that it looked, tasted, and smelled wrong; 478 days since a Flint resident informed the Environmental Protection Agency that her water contained high levels of lead; and 157 days since Republican Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency.

The U.S. Congress still hasn’t passed any aid to help Flint, or for any of the other communities that could use it.

Senate Republicans on Thursday abandoned an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would allocate $1.9 billion for lead-free clean water infrastructure across the country and in Flint. Before this bill, the Senate didn’t add aid onto a comprehensive energy package because Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blocked the amendment.

Not only does the water in Flint still contain lead — which leads to physical and developmental problems in adults and children — it could take up to eight years and more than $200 million to replace the damaged pipes that lead to the crisis. And the water in Flint isn’t just dangerous, it’s also expensive: A report by Food and Water Watch found that the annual water bill for a Flint household was about $910 as of January 2015. That’s compared to $315 in districts where water is a government utility and $500 in districts where water is provided by for-profit entities. Making this all the more chilling, Flint is one of the most impoverished cities in the nation.

More than 2,000 municipal water systems in all 50 states show elevated levels of lead, and yet, the U.S. Congress continues to ignore, to postpone, to deny funding to fix the problem. As John Oliver said, “Flint has become a city whose name is synonymous with disaster.” The same could be said of Congress.

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777 days later, Congress hasn’t lifted a finger for Flint

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Obama Just Called Out Florida’s Climate Deniers in Their Own Backyard

by DenisIqiummiqml Posted on April 22, 2015

Mother Jones

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President Barack Obama just marked Earth Day with a speech on climate change, given from a podium in Florida’s Everglades National Park. The choice of venue was appropriate from an environmental perspective—the Everglades is already acutely feeling the impacts of sea level rise—but it was also telling from a political standpoint. Although our swampiest national park has a long history of bipartisan support, it’s located in a state that has recently produced some of the most absurdist climate denial in recent memory—and Obama didn’t forget to mention it.

Florida is home not just to Senator Marco Rubio, a GOP presidential contender who maintains that humans can’t affect the climate, but also to Governor Rick Scott, who landed in headlines last month after apparently barring state employees from talking about climate change.

“Climate change can no longer be denied,” Obama said today. “It can’t be edited out. It can’t be omitted from the conversation… Simply refusing to say the words ‘climate change’ doesn’t mean climate change isn’t happening.”

Obama also took a jab at Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) for bringing a snowball onto the Senate floor. “If you have a coming storm, you don’t stick your head in the sand,” he said. “You prepare for the storm.”

You can watch the full speech below (starts at 48:00):

Originally posted here – 

Obama Just Called Out Florida’s Climate Deniers in Their Own Backyard

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