Dady Dadyburjor, Morgantown
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been in the news on two fronts lately. First is his brushes with ethics, but we leave that to the appropriate inspector general.
Second, especially in West Virginia, we are concerned with his efforts to bring down environmental advances obtained in past years. In this, he has no stronger supporter than our own Rep. David McKinley. McKinley is the vice chairman of the powerful Environmental Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce committee. He is responsible for allowing drilling in the Arctic Refuge, undermining clean water in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and undermining pipeline reviews. Locally and nationally, these actions make our families vulnerable to pollution.
To show concern, over a dozen people met outside his office in Morgantown on Monday, to present him with the “Swamp Monster Award … for Defending the D.C. Swamp over Keeping WV Wild and Wonderful.”
Representatives of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Mountaineers for Progress, the WV Citizen Action Group (CAG), the WV Environmental Council (WVEC) and the WV Sierra Club attended.
Gary Zuckett, of CAG, noted that you really have to try hard to get a rating of zero from LCV, as Rep. McKinley achieved.
In support of the nomination, Jim Kotcon, of Sierra Club, pointed out photos, on a poster, of some sites that “qualified” McKinley for the award — air and ground pollution around power plants, acid-mine-drainage sites in creeks, and PCB infestation in Minden, Fayette County.
No one in McKinley’s office would accept the Swamp Monster Award, but one staffer asked if it were not true that West Virginia was leading the economy in the U.S. in 2017.
This is clearly fake news, as evidenced by a recent independent survey of employment opportunities by Wallet Hub. In fact, our other poster pointed out a few relevant statistics from the survey: Even with all of these pollution burdens, we are No. 46 in job opportunities, No. 41 in average starting salaries,
No. 48 in unemployment and No. 48 in income. Clearly, a polluted environment does not lead to a healthy economy.
With McKinley up for re-election soon, we hope that those who care about the economy and the environment will keep in mind the necessity of both good jobs and clean water, air and soil.
