Posted on 06/29/2014 2:23:23 AM PDT by markomalley
One of the leading leftwing environmentalists last week described the hundreds of thousands of Americans who may lose their jobs due to the Obama administration’s new anti-carbon regulations as “collateral damage” in the fight against global warming.
The offensive comments were issued by William S. Becker, the head of the Climate Action Project, a well-funded environmental group.
In his piece in the Huffington Post praising the new Environmental Protection Agency regulations to stop climate change, he lamented that “there is nothing explicit in the [Obama] plan to mitigate or adapt to the economic disruption the clean energy transition will cause for coal and oil-country families.”
He said that the pain and suffering to the estimated 200,000 families put out of work is an “evolutionary step in technology and the economy” and a move toward “economic progress.”
Mr. Becker wants more government programs to help the “disrupted” families, as though yet another government job training program will solve the problem that these workers’ lives have been turned upside down. Perhaps this is what the left means by “environmental justice.”
The “let them eat cake” attitude may strike readers as unbelievably offensive and cavalier. Imagine the outcry if a Republican referred to middle class job losers as acceptable “collateral damage.” The story would be on the front page of every newspaper in the country and if Mr. Becker were the head of an industry group he would almost surely be facing intense pressure to resign.
But Mr. Becker is at least giving an honest assessment of the negative impact of the radical anti-carbon lobby’s crusade on middle class families.
The job losses in the coal mining, oil and drilling, construction and trucking industries are acceptable to the left climate change zealots, especially if it means the U.S. will take a mostly symbolic step to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
One study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds that the new EPA regulations will destroy 200,000 mostly blue collar energy jobs, reduce the U.S. GDP by about $50 billion a year and cost families thousands of dollars over the next decade in higher energy costs.
The workers who will be harmed live in places like Wheeling, West Virginia and Bakersfield, California and hundreds of energy industry towns in between.
Will voters in these areas tolerate these disruptions to their lives? Will they accept that they are”colletaral damage” to the radical green movement? We will see.
I think this applies to how Liberals see the Middle Class and Americans workers in general. Is there a single Liberal cause that HASN’T damaged the Middle Class?
Pick a cause.....any cause.
Gaia demands blood sacrifice.
Kinda like getting messed up because someone bombed the empty hut next door...
So sorry should Becker become collateral damage in the restoration of the middle class.
I have no idea whether it is real or not but this is the first time I've heard of anyone who is a "war correspondent" getting a bronze star for their reporting.
It would be enlightening to see the citation that backs up this claim.
Writer for Stars and Stripes?
Don’t liberals see that when people are impoverished, Mother Earth suffers?
They were spoiled by having a middle class that behaved (sorting recyclables, hunting in season, etc.). That nonsense is history when people are in self-preservation mode...
I don’t know, but ‘writing’ can get you a Bronze Star?
I don’t know.
I have occasion to travel through coal country several times a year. Around election time you see a lot of stop the war on coal signs.
Lots of union workers.
Lots of them still vote Democrat in spite of losing their jobs.
There’s even union talk radio out there.
I just don’t know.
I doubt writing could earn one a bronze star, but stars and Stripes reporters are military and could have done other than just write in the course of a battle.
It is possible.
That’s the same thing the Free Trade crowd calls them.
Yes, it is possible. I’d still like to see the citation, and whether it was for Valor or some other type.
My Dad was a Medic in Army during WW2 and earned several medals, including a bronze star on Omaha beach.
I wasn’t defending the schmuck, just pointing out that it would be possible.
Yes, I can certainly understand getting one for assistance to others as a medic under fire. I was mainly curious to find out exactly how a correspondent earned a bronze star and wanted to know more. AFIC, medic and correspondent aren’t synonymous. The two aren’t even close.
They don’t really look at them as “collateral damage”—more like a recruiting opportunity. Make them feel like victims, put them on disability, food stamps and section 8 housing. And, like magic, you have a Democratic voter for life.
I guess, in the eyes of the new progressive Republican Party, conservative ideals are to be considered “collateral damage”, as well.
“there is nothing explicit in the [Obama] plan to mitigate or adapt to the economic disruption the clean energy transition will cause for...” Everybody
Him plan is the same, no change,print money pass it out for votes.
They will also need to import a bunch of wheelbarrows for the people people to carry all this currency around in.
Inflation is on us the monkey on your back.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.