Dear Editor:
In a recent editorial page message, Rep. Luetkemeyer praised Trump's executive order rescinding a rule to prevent dumping of coal waste into rivers and streams.
He labeled the rule part of the "Obama administration's war on coal." But regulation has played a minor role in the demise of the coal industry. Instead it is fracking that has produced an abundance of natural gas and lowered the cost of this energy source below that of coal, which has shuttered the coalmines. It would be more accurate to claim Scott Pruitt who as Oklahoma's Attorney General oversaw a regulatory framework that promoted a huge growth in Oklahoma oil and natural gas production to have waged a "war on coal."
Of course the Fracking phenomenon has not occurred without environmental consequences including an increase in earthquake activity in Oklahoma from several a year (all minor) to over 900 per year (some major) along with pollution of ground water and other harms. Now Mr. Pruitt has been nominated and is being vetted to become director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal entity against whose regulations he fiercely fought as Oklahoma Attorney General. Obviously, Rep. Luetkemeyer and President 45 think Mr. Pruitt's Oklahoma actions pass the regulatory "commonsense test." Common sense to them seems to mean any regulation that promotes an industry's ability to increase its profits. Back in the 1970s, based on research showing that even barely detectable amounts of lead impair a child's brain development, Congress passed legislation to phase out lead additives in gasoline. Reagan's EPA director fiercely fought to roll back those lead-in-gasoline restrictions. According to a 1983 New York Times article - "Her policy appears to be to lighten the polluter's burden at all costs." Her name was Anne Gorsuch (her son has been nominated to the Supreme Court). Mr. Pruitt seems to have a similar philosophy as Ms. Gorsuch with similar intentions to change the 'P' in EPA to mean "Pollution" rather than "Protection." Back in the 1980s the Congress did not allow that to happen; but facts, science and preserving the environment seem to have had more credibility and influence on votes back then.
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