House Republicans passed a resolution on Wednesday that overturned an Interior Department rule that prohibited coal companies from polluting the water sources near mines.
The House voted 228-194 to overturn an Interior Department rule that protected the streams from coal company pollution. 224 Republicans voted for the bill. Nine Republicans voted against it. 185 Democrats voted against the bill, and 4 Democrats voted for it.
Republicans argued that the coal mines couldn’t function if they were not allowed to pollute the water supply. The House vote against protecting the water supply from pollution is an example of the kinds of “needless regulations” that Paul Ryan and Donald Trump are looking to remove from government.
What is a little coal mine pollution and grit in the drinking water for the sake of corporate profits?
The Executive Orders and other showy public moves get all of the attention from the press, but it is the lower profile actions that will make it easy for corporations to damage our food, air, and water that are equally, and in some cases more dangerous to the lives of the American people.
In the Trump/Republican America, people can only have access to clean drinking water if it doesn’t interfere with corporate profits.