3688

If I was faced with the choice of saving a Trump supporter, or saving Johnny 5, it wouldn’t be a hard decision.

3689

Love that video.

3690

Saddest movie, maybe ever.

image
image.jpg758×426 161 KB

3691

I wondered this. Is it a terrifying plunge to Venusification or is it just a dribble of piss in the ocean of piss that is human emissions output?

3692

It sounds more dramatic the way that they worded it. TEN TIMES!

3693

Oh I remember watching this one! It was like the prequel to Duskers, to me.

3694

Bruce Dern has always done crazy well.

3695

I went to grad school with the woman who ran the company (Interbots) that produced that robot.

She works at Google last I saw. Really smart lady.

3696

What movie is that from?

3697

Silent Running. Amazing film.

3698

Indeed, amazing film. I recommend it often, especially as an example of early Bruce Dern work.

3699

Leave it to China to turn a bike-sharing program into more pollution.

3700

If anything typifies the scumbaggery and short-sightedness of the Trump Administration, it’s Scott Pruitt’s EPA.

3701

In practice - like most of this administration’s actions - this will have little if any effect. US automakers all build to California’s standards because that is one of the largest and also strictest markets. It’s not cost-effective to make a car to sell in a “polluting” state and then another model to sell in California… so they simply make their cars as if they were all to be sold in downtown LA.

Pruitt can repeal all the rules he wants to; as long as California’s rules are the same or more restrictive, Ford and Toyota aren’t going to start making more polluting cars for US sales.

3702

Not to mention that world markets are moving towards hybrid and EV vehicles as the 2030 standard. US car makers risk becoming regional car companies instead of global ones if they ignore China and other markets with stricter emission control plans.

3703

California: bulwark of human survival.

Y’all are welcome!

3704

Not so fast.

3705

States rights!

3706

Well, to be fair, breathable air is a pretty controversial goal. I totally get why the responsible parties in the Federal Government would want to do something about California’s draconian policies.

3707

But the EPA rules that were in effect in 2016 are still the rules in 2018, despite Pruitt’s efforts to overturn them. He tried to impose a unilateral stay on an Obama rule regulating climate-warming methane emissions from oil and gas operations; a federal appeals court deemed the stay “unauthorized” and “unreasonable,” so the methane rule is now in force again. He tried a similar maneuver to suspend Obama’s restrictions on smog; after a group of state attorney generals sued, Pruitt reversed course, so those restrictions also remain in effect. Obama’s EPA had worked on both rules for years, engaging with stakeholders and the scientific community, creating a lengthy administrative record. Pruitt still hopes to rewrite them, but success would require the same kind of meticulous process.

“You can’t just govern by press release. You have to do the hard work of developing a rule that can withstand judicial scrutiny, even though it isn’t sexy,” says State Energy & Environmental Impact Center director David Hayes, an Interior Department official in the Clinton and Obama administrations. “Pruitt hasn’t been willing to do that, and that’s why he isn’t really having much of an impact.”