Bill Straub: Politicians lining up to eliminate the EPA have strong Kentucky ties in common

WASHINGTON – Kentucky is piecing together a strong contingent of volunteers ready and willing to do battle with raging hordes of tree-huggers and scientists in the ongoing War on the Environment, emerging proudly as the modern embodiment of F Troop.

The commonwealth’s defenders are firmly fixed along an ecological Maginot Line in the battle against those who would foist potable water and breathable air on the commonwealth’s unsuspecting residents, all in defense of an ever fading coal industry that proudly fouls every bit of property it can attach its grimy meathooks to, not to mention the campaign contributions that provide certain public officials with multiple benefits.

A quick look at Kentuckians lined up against environmental standards is a who’s who of pollution heroes who would gleefully soil their own nests:

— Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s nominee to serve as director of the Environmental Protection Agency, is a Lexington native and Georgetown College graduate who apparently moved to Oklahoma some years ago because Kentucky just wasn’t right-wing enough for him. Pruitt is well positioned to destroy one of the federal government’s most effective agencies from within. As the Sooner State’s attorney general he has filed 14 lawsuits against EPA initiatives and is a self-described “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.’’

— Our old buddy, the Whiz Kid, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty, who is an original co-sponsor of legislation sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL, to eliminate the EPA, explaining that the agency “makes rules that undermine the voice of the American people and threaten jobs in Kentucky.” Presumably he’ll be able to hear that “voice’’ in between hacks of smog-induced coughs.

— Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, who almost — almost, mind you — cracked a smile when the upper chamber last week voted to reverse an Obama administration rule prohibiting mining companies from dumping their waste into stream beds. What a proud moment. McConnell, who has engaged in a running battle with the EPA for decades, earned a zero percent rating, a goose egg, from the League of Conservation Voters for the second session of the 114th Congress and “sides with polluters every step of the way’’ according to the group.

— And then, of course, there is the grande dame, the capo di tutti capi of pollution supporters, Gov. Mad Matt Bevin, who, according to The Courier-Journal, appeared on a West Virginia radio station a few months back and expressed hope that President Trump will “gut’’ the EPA, asserting that the agency “is not needed on the federal level.’’

Bevin, as is his wont, delved ever deeper into the self-produced muck like a pig in…well, you get the idea.

“There’s not one state in America that wants dirty water and dirty air for its people,” Bevin told WVHU in Huntington, WV. “Not one. We’ve got the ability to implement, we’re already the ones that enforce all the action at the state level. Let us continue to do what we are doing and what we can do well without the interference, without the un-elected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., passing down edicts.’’

Now, people in the know who have dealings in Frankfort every day will tell you that Bevin is, indeed, as far right as they come but that he’s a really, really smart guy, which brings to mind Mark Twain’s assessment that Wagner’s music “is better than it sounds.’’

Bevin’s statement may be, frankly, the single stupidest comment a Kentucky governor has uttered in a long, long time, and that’s saying something. It assumes pollution from the commonwealth’s coal-fired power plants, for instance, recognize the state’s borders, that when the poisoned air reaches Fulton, it suddenly stops and makes a u-turn once it hits South Fulton, TN.

If someone manages to drop tons of radioactive material at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, does the contamination in the Ohio River, halt once it hits East Liverpool, OH, or flow all the way along Kentucky’s northern border to Cairo, IL?

It is a federal issue and that debate was settled long ago. Scientists, those evil creatures who seem to take all the fun out of being a conservative, determined that emissions from Midwestern power plants drifted east resulting in acid rain, which damaged forests, freshwater repositories and soil, not to mention the health of those in the pathway. Much of that damage occurred in New England.

It was the EPA, in 2005, after years of study, which issued the Clean Air Interstate Rule permanently capping certain emissions in 28 eastern states and the District of Columbia. That program has proved successful in addressing the problem. Does the governor really believe Kentucky and other states would have acted on their own to provide New England and elsewhere with the necessary relief?

And the claim that no state wants dirty air or water for its people is ridiculous on its face. Here’s Mad Matt during his successful gubernatorial campaign:

“I have made very clear that I understand, as governor, that we are the last line of defense in America against an out-of-control EPA. We need a governor that will fight for coal — not just give lip service when running for office.”

It’s impossible to be pro-coal and simultaneously maintain no state supports dirty air or water. There is no such thing as clean coal technology, something that has been promised for ages. And if there were, it likely would prove economically infeasible.

Coal-fired power plants typically generate 3.5 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, resulting in smog, acid rain and other forms of toxic air pollution that affect the general health.

No matter how much you love coal, you can’t argue that it’s not dirtying the joint up. So perhaps Bevin has been holding out on the populace all these months. Does he secretly have a plan to close the state’s coal-fired power plants and other industries that contribute to air quality problems, thus looking for alternative forms of energy to improve the state’s traditionally low ranking in health measurements?

Unlikely.

And is the governor, not to mention wunderkind Tommy Massie, aware that the Ohio River is considered by the EPA to be the most contaminated body of water in the country? More than 25 million people, almost 10 percent of the nation’s population, including hundreds of thousands in Kentucky, reside in the Ohio River Basin and it serves as the primary source of drinking water for more than 3 million people.

Raw sewage is directly discharged into the Ohio River at more than 1,350 points during rainstorms. Whole sections fail to meet water quality standards for bacteria and pathogens, PCBs, lead, mercury, metals, organics and other pollutants. Fish consumption advisories are in place for the entirety of the river.

The Ohio, it should be noted forms the northern border of Lewis County, Massie’s place of residence. Yet Mad Matt and Massie maintain the states, not the federal government, are well equipped to handle the problem. Fat chance.

All of this does not even begin to consider steps that need to be taken to address the real problems associated with global climate change.

Massie, with a background in science, describes himself as unconvinced that human activity is contributing to the warming of the planet. Bevin has characterized much of the climate debate as “fluff and theory.’’ McConnell hasn’t committed one way or another, claiming that he is not a scientist, which comes as a surprise to no one.

So the Kentucky contingent is manning the front lines to enable residents of the commonwealth to not only live in filth but deal with the medical problems associated with air and water pollution.

And somehow the EPA, which has made great strides addressing the problems since 1972, is the enemy.

Ain’t America grand?

Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.