This is a story about the American Vacant Chair at the G7 Summit Discussion on Climate Change, the Environment, and the Fire in the Amazon Rain Forest held in Biarritz, France, and why the vacant seat was not unusual.
"Absolutely we need to exit Paris because it's a bad business deal for this country and the President has talked about an America first strategy in trade and an America first strategy in protecting our border and what Paris represents is an America last strategy with respect to the environment. We are leading the world now, we are at pre-1994 levels with our CO-2 footprint, not because of Paris, not because of a government mandate but because of innovation and technology. For those who say we are going to lose our seat at the table, we are the United States, we don't lose our seat at the table." Scott Pruitt, Chairman of EPA - Fox News, May 19, 2017.
On June 01, 2017, Scott Pruitt had his way: President Donald Trump announced American withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Accord of 2015. However, when the right time came for America to lead on CO-2 deliberations, consistent with Mr. Pruitt's declaration of May 19, 2017, America fails to lead. Its footprint was conspicuously missing. On Monday, August 26, 2019, American seat was vacant at the table during a discussion on Climate Change at the just concluded G7 Summit at Biarritz, France. Sad to say, on the environment and climate change, America under President Donald Trump is not leading.
President Donald Trump nominated Mr. Scott Pruit as his Administrator of the EPA. Mr. Scott Pruitt, like Mr. President, is a climate change denier. Before coming to Washington DC, Mr. Pruit was the Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma. And he specializes in the persecution and bashing of the EPA. In his capacity as the AG, he set a national record as the guy with the highest number of lawsuits ever filed against the EPA. Why him? Birds of the same feathers flock together. And as the Administrator of the EPA, he set another national record - the Administrator with the highest number of roll-back of EPA regulations put in place by the previous administrations.
His support for the fossil fuel industry knows no bound. He is against every established empirical evidence supporting the fact that climate change is real. He was and he is the darling of the coal industry and the oil giants. And as most Republican purists who came to Washington to change everything, he did not last long on the job. On July 05, 2018, he resigned as the Administrator of the EPA following series of investigations bordering on financial impropriety and excessive travel costs that he faces.
His deputy, Mr. Andrew Wheeler, was subsequently confirmed by the Senate as his replacement. Mr. Andrew Wheeler, unlike Mr. Scott Pruitt who is an outsider, is a Washington based lobbyist, a quintessential insider, and a wheeler-dealer. He has a law degree with an MBA to boot. According to CNN, he was a former aide to Senator Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who's an outspoken climate change skeptic. The Senate Minority Leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, according to CNN, dubbed Wheeler "a former industry lobbyist who has worked on behalf of big polluters and climate change deniers." "He has spent years working to undermine or lobby against the environmental protections he may soon oversee."
The main purpose of the EPA is to protect the environment. It does that by planning, educating, monitoring, analyzing, reporting, and enforcing environmental protection law. If the two gentlemen described above are the best candidates President Donald Trump could consider capable to head that agency, now you know why the seat reserved for the American President at a discussion on Climate Change and the ongoing fire at the Amazon Rain Forest at the just concluded G7 Summit in Biarritz, France, was vacant. They made a living as Lawyers bashing the same agency President Donald Trump nominated them to head and regulate. So the reasons for the regulation blockage and rollback of existing ones are crystal clear.
As a student of the industry, there are some salient aspects of the EPA regulatory mechanism or regime that I consider overbearing. Declaring, for instance, a vast expanse of land untouchable or protected because of the presence of certain endangered species, like turtles, needs a rethink. Other than that, the ecological ills and environmental hazards associated with unregulated fossil fuel and CO-2 emissions have been so scientifically-proof documented by the EPA and related international agencies to make challenges coming from climate change deniers in America look like mischief-makers and casualties of the financial influence of the Coal industry and Crude Oil giants.
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