Does a Pro-Coal Agenda “Border on the Immoral?”

Every time I cite an article where one U.S. politician goes after another with angry rhetoric, I feel, at a certain level, I’m being played. Isn’t all this scripted? Can functioning grown-ups actually think and act this way in real life?

At any rate….here, California Governor Jerry Brown expresses his ire at U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the latter’s attempt to frustrate the Obama administration and the will of the American people re: reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Apparently, McConnell urged all 50 state governors in a letter Thursday to reject the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to reduce emissions from existing power plants by 30 percent by 2030, insofar as it would make things tough on the coal industry, the organization that wants us to ignore the fact that it’s by far the worst polluter on the planet, not only in terms of CO2, but of methane, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, and a huge range of heavy metals and radioactive isotopes.

So does McConnell’s action here “border on” the immoral? Dabble in it? Stick its toe in it?

Of course not. It frolics (pictured) in it.  It runs through it, barefoot.

Yet still, I hesitate to be a part of the theater. This is real? Doesn’t it seem like something straight out of central casting?  The director just said, “Get me some high-ranking dude who’s willing to take the position that all state governors should reject the health and safety needs of all 317 million Americans.” The casting director replied, “Won’t be a problem there, boss.” Yet if you saw this on cable television you’d turn it off and watch something you deemed to be more plausible, perhaps a bit of James Bond.