James “Snowball” Inhofe, the Oklahoma senator who once compared the EPA to the Gestapo, has announced an amendment to the Energy Modernization Act that will provide low-interest loans for Flint, Mich., and other communities facing water crises.
The bipartisan amendment will increase much-needed funding to communities with inadequate water infrastructure, but lest you think Inhofe grew a heart (or a brain) for a moment: Nope! The senator seems to be less concerned with the toxic water coming out of America’s pipes that with throwing shade at Barack Obama. In a statement, Inhofe said:
As a result of misplaced priorities of President Obama, who has consistently failed to partner with the states to address our nation’s real needs, stories are emerging in East Los Angeles, Baltimore, communities across Ohio, and elsewhere about lead pipes and other infrastructure problems that put the health of our citizens at risk. In my leadership role on the EPW Committee, I have watched the Obama administration prioritize more than $120 billion for the president’s global warming agenda at the expense of real investment in critical infrastructure.
Ya hear that, liberals?? Contrary to common sense and all expert opinions, Flint’s water crisis isn’t because the conservative local government changed the city’s water source in order to save money, it’s because of Obama’s “global warming agenda.”
While it’s true that the EPA’s reaction to the crisis was troublingly slow, and that Obama’s proposed 2017 budget does cut the EPA’s water infrastructure funding by a quarter billion dollars, we have a really hard time believing that this had anything to do with global warming. Is it a problem? Yes. But is it because of excessive attention to climate change? No.
Let’s recall that this is the president who has tried to invest the EPA with more regulatory oversight, in the service of fighting climate change and improving environmental health around the country. Both have been priorities of Obama’s administration, and both have been staunchly opposed by a Republican Congress. And not only does climate change action not distract from clean drinking water, but the two are directly related, as drought can concentrate contaminants in dwindling water reservoirs.
If the senator’s logic seems flawed, maybe we should give him a break: All those fracking-induced earthquakes in Senator Snowball’s home state might have rattled his brain.
