Politicians On Both Sides Of The Aisle Sell Out To Pollution Lobbyists

Yesterday we were wondering how it is possible that our political elites can evade their environmental responsibilities so blatantly even in the face of a public that is uneasy that politicians aren't doing enough to protect society from greedy, selfish polluters. I suppose politicians take the gamble that voters may grumble and tell pollsters they're unhappy but that they won't use environmental concerns to determine how they vote. For example, even if short-sighted, corrupt and irresponsible politicians don't care about sea levels rising, most Americans do... a lot. A survey released last week by Stanford University showed definitively that "an overwhelming majority of Americans is convinced that sea level rise resulting from climate change poses a significant threat to the United States and that coastal communities should invest in preparing for the risks."

According to ProgressivePunch there are over three dozen Members of Congress who have voted badly on every single environmental bill that's been proposed single they were elected-- both the really important bills and the routine bills, everything. And the 38 Members voted for every single attack on the environment that's come up. All but one of them, Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-CA), are Republicans and most of them are backbenchers, although you should recall a few names that we've come across before, like Matt Salmon (R-AZ), Steve Stockman (R-TX), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Kerry Bentovolio (R-MI), Robert Pittenger (R-NC), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Trey Radel (R-FL), Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), Ted Yoho (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Aside from McLeod's zero rating, the 3 other most anti-environmental Democrats in the House are a trio of exceedingly corrupt Blue Dogs who take cash from polluters to vote with Republicans: Jim Costa (CA), Collin Peterson (MN) and Henry Cuellar (TX).

Congress' most anti-environmental Dem

You would think an informed electorate would defeat these bandits at the first opportunity. But what about an uninformed electorate-- the one we have in most of these backward, rural and suburban districts? Yesterday's NY Times had a story Hong Kong-based Edward Wong that could wake them up a little-- if any of them read newspapers (other than the ones available at checkout counters about Princess Diana mating with visitors from a previously unknown moon of Jupiter. Wong warns that in 2010 alone, 1.2 million premature deaths in China were related to air pollution. Gloria Negrete McLeod represents a heavily Democratic part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area that includes Pomona, Ontario, Montclair, Chino and Fontana. Obama beat Romney in this district 67.4-30.6%. I can't imagine voters there know they elected the most anti-environment Democrat in the whole Congress. Do they have to wait for numbers like China's before they ditch this sociopath?

What the researchers called “ambient particulate matter pollution” was the fourth-leading risk factor for deaths in China in 2010, behind dietary risks, high blood pressure and smoking. Air pollution ranked seventh on the worldwide list of risk factors, contributing to 3.2 million deaths in 2010.

By comparison with China, India, which also has densely populated cities grappling with similar levels of pollution, had 620,000 premature deaths in 2010 because of outdoor air pollution, the study found. That was deemed to be the sixth most common killer in South Asia.

...Calculations of premature deaths because of outdoor air pollution are politically threatening in the eyes of some Chinese officials. According to news reports, Chinese officials cut out sections of a 2007 report called “Cost of Pollution in China” that discussed premature deaths. The report’s authors had concluded that 350,000 to 400,000 people die prematurely in China each year because of outdoor air pollution. The study was done by the World Bank in cooperation with the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration, the precursor to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

There have been other estimates of premature deaths because of air pollution. In 2011, the World Health Organization estimated that there were 1.3 million premature deaths in cities worldwide because of outdoor air pollution.

Last month, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris, warned that “urban air pollution is set to become the top environmental cause of mortality worldwide by 2050, ahead of dirty water and lack of sanitation.” It estimated that up to 3.6 million people could end up dying prematurely from air pollution each year, mostly in China and India.

There has been growing outrage in Chinese cities over what many say are untenable levels of air pollution. Cities across the north hit record levels in January, and official Chinese newspapers ran front-page articles on the surge-- what some foreigners call the “airpocalypse”-- despite earlier limits on such discussion by propaganda officials.

In February, the State Council, China’s cabinet, announced a timeline for introducing new fuel standards, but state-owned oil and power companies are known to block or ignore environmental policies to save on costs.

...Last week, an official Chinese news report said the cost of environmental degradation in China was about $230 billion in 2010, or 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product. The estimate, said to be partial, came from a research institute under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and was three times the amount in 2004, in local currency terms. It was unclear to what extent those numbers took into account the costs of health care and premature deaths because of pollution.

No one's going to rid us of corrupt politicians who do the bidding of polluters-- whether we're talking about Gloria Negrete McLeod and Blue Dog Jim Costa in California or corrupt right-wing ideologues like Florida freshmen Ron DeSantis, Ted Yoho and Trey Radel; we have to do it ourselves, while their respective party Establishments do all they can to protect their seats.