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| A lignite mine in Eastern Germany |
The proposal was all Andrew Wheeler’s former boss’s idea; Robert E. Murray of Murray Energy Corporation, who contributed the most to the President Trump’s inaugural fund and, alternatively, if the same strings were pulled in order get William Wehrum, a shining body of armor to coal industries, what was in it for Wehrum was a full victory for his former clients. The rollback was fought for in a case back in 2014 in the appellate courts, the same case in which Judge Brett Kavanaugh had gotten overruled (The New York Times, 10/1/2018, Trump Prepares Major Weakening of Mercury Rules). Kavanaugh’s methods of evaluation, which Cody Nett, spokesperson of Murray Energy would call the "questionable scientific foundation," corresponded to a 2011 finding by the E.P.A. The findings were that if you’re going to lay down the ground rules for industries, you also need to pick up on the additional incentives in reducing other pollutants, like the drop in soot and nitrogen oxide levels--the primary causes of asthma and bronchitis--when power plants had answered to upgrade regulations of their emission-control technology. Such incentives are known as “co-benefits” (The New York Times, 10/1/2018, Trump Prepares Major Weakening of Mercury Rules). The following are the words written by Kavanaugh in his 2014 dissent to the mercury ruling:
"Industry petitioners focus on the reduction in hazardous air pollutant emissions attributable to the regulations, which amount to only $4 to $6 million each year. If those figures are right, the rule costs nearly $1,500 for every $1 of health and environmental benefit produced" (The New York Times, 10/1/2018, Trump Prepares Major Weakening of Mercury Rules).
The Obama administration calculated that the commission on mercury control technology would bring up $6 billion per year and the “co-benefits” from reduction of soot and nitrogen oxide could bring that up to a whooping $80 billion as a side effect. Ironically, the appellate courts suspended the law and ordered the E.P.A. to look more thoroughly into the cost analysis or the "questionable scientific foundation." They did so and the law was ultimately reinstated in the year 2016 (The New York Times, 10/1/2018, Trump Prepares Major Weakening of Mercury Rules). The new proposal possesses quite enough dynamite to have those tables turned; that the mercury rule
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Mercury is that alloy stuff the dentists
use to fill in the cavities in your teeth.
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would ensure economic cost greater than health, in fact, greater than quantifiable health. Like oil sands, mercury could also create a deadly airborne virus. When that stuff gets into the oceans or the seas, it practically finds its way into the aquatic food chain. The bigger fish accumulate the largest amounts because they eat the smaller fish. So if you'll forgive me for coming between you and your love of seafood, the risk of mercury poisoning is proximately low, theoretical, but low. And beyond the fact of those co-benefits becoming water over the dam, it would also grant Murray Energy with legitimate momentum to attempt a second sue for the rollback; the first sue was to have it suspended, however, the appellate courts postponed the closing arguments for that case at the petition of E.P.A.'s administrators (The New York Times, 10/1/2018, Trump Prepares Major Weakening of Mercury Rules).
Germany has its feet
closest to the fire. A quarter of Germany's electric grid comes lignite, also
known as brown coal--the color of sh*t, makes sense because it is one of the
dirtiest fossil fuels ever produced and since Germany is the head master in
mining and burning of lignite, the country's name smells even worse (The
New York Times, 10/11/2018,
Why Germany Remains Addicted to Coal
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| The large protest in Cottbus |
15 years After Pledge to Dial Back, A6).
Germany's main commissioner on lignite is the Jänschwalde Power Station
located near the small village of Jänschwalde in Brandenburg. LEAG, one of
the world's largest employers of coal mines and coal-fired plants,
owns 8,000 of the jobs in Germany. There was a huge protest in front of
the city hall in Cottbus, the capital of Eastern Germany coal country, led by
Philip Zirow, head of the representatives for coal workers when it was
announced that the Jänschwalde Power Station was losing its Block F
sector. About 7,800 jobs rely on the many coal mines in Lusatia, a region
bordering Poland whereby the sorbs, a slavic micro-nation residing in parts of Southeastern
Brandenburg and Eastern Saxony, humbly reside. An additional 8,900 miners work
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| A Hambach mine |
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The tree houses and tent where the protestors squatted
to stand off for the forest
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in North Rhine-West-phalia, a heavily industrialized state and the critical
testing ground for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Demo-cratic Party.
Liberals have no power in those states and the opposing far-right
party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has all of it. The right hand, or
wing, should never know what the left hand, or wing, is up to (The New
York Times, 10/11/2018, Why Germany Remains Addicted to Coal 15 years After
Pledge to Dial Back, A6). The 91 scientists are subscribing to the idea
that the quickest way to meet their goal to have 80 to 95 percent of
carbon emissions plunged by 2050, thus catching up with their contemp-oraries in
Western Europe--except for Spain, is by tinkering with the master meter. But,
since recent studies found that a transition to green power without pulling the
lever on the master meter was possible, Ms. Merkel's government of 31-members
in Lusatia are working out other ways to quit the coal (The New York Times, 10/11/2018, Why Germany Remains Addicted to Coal 15 years After Pledge
to Dial Back, A6). Patrick Graichen, director of Agora Energiewende,
Germany's own little thinker-tinker for renewable energy shift, suggested that
Germany expand its electric grid to the industrial regions farther South. In
the former East Germany, in order to create jobs, a team of underwriters would
be required to raise investment capital and the only way to the region is
through a single-track railway connecting it to the capital and little
industry. And the uprising in Cottbus was nowhere near as extreme as the one in
Western Germany last month that ignited after the RWE announced their plans to
scuttle 500-acres of a forest in Hambach to make room for another lignite mine.
Threats to quit the company by representatives of environmental groups did not
derail RWE's agenda but a court order to suspend the plans did (The New
York Times, 10/11/2018, Why Germany Remains Addicted to Coal 15 years After Pledge
to Dial Back, A6). So, that's one victory for Germany. Now there's
the other countries. It’s about time someone put their foot down on the
petro and crumbled it and you know where it’s going to happen…right there
in the heart of Poland’s coal belt
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