Some Men Want to Watch the World Burn
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The Trump administration continues to adhere to its belief that there needs to be more rapid climate change and more pollution:
The Trump administration laid out on Thursday a far-reaching plan to cut back on the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule aims to eliminate federal requirements that oil and gas companies install technology to detect and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelinesand storage facilities. It would also reopen the question of whether the E.P.A. had the legal authority to regulate methane as a pollutant.
The rollback plan is particularly notable because major energy companies have, in fact, spoken out against it — joining automakers, electric utilities and other industrial giants that have opposed other administration initiatives to dismantle climate-change and environmental rules.
The fact that the Trump administration wants less environmental regulation than the regulated industries want is remarkable, and yet it’s perfectly consistent with how Republicans act:
But they are businesses. They might be willing to pollute the planet to make money, but it’s not their objective. Trump is the product of right-wing media, which has spent years not only denying climate science but turning the issue into a zero-sum culture-war fight in which maximizing fossil fuel production is defined as victory. That, combined with the right’s obsession with negating Obama-era policy accomplishments, produces a strange world in which the administration is demanding car companies and fossil fuel producers sacrifice their financial self-interest in order to accelerate climate change.
Trump’s partners in the business lobby thought they were undertaking a somewhat unethical yet pragmatic deal with the administration. But some men just want to watch the world burn.
It’s the same thing on healthcare — if given the option between going along with powerful healthcare interests and covering fewer people, Republicans will choose the latter.
I’ve said it before, but the country would actually be better off if Republicans were purely venal rather than committed in principle to horrible ideas.