As Scarlett O'Hara observed at the close of Gone With the Wind, “Tomorrow is another day!” The same sentiment applies to a week, a month, and a year. If things don't work out the way we want in the current one, there's always the next.
We just have to keep a stiff upper lip, hang in there, never say die, try try again, and keep on truckin'.
A case in point: The U.S. House of Representatives' 2017 Interior and Environmental Appropriations bill is not likely to be signed by our present president in 2016, but it could be a shoo-in next year, provided there is a change in administration.
The bill would fund the Environmental Protection Agency at just under $8 billion, which is nearly $300 million less than the president requested, roughly two thirds of that reduction coming out of the EPA's regulatory programs.
In addition to rejecting Obama's proposed increase in EPA staffing, the bill prohibits the implementation of new greenhouse gas regulations for all power plants, any changes to the definitions of “navigable waters” and “fill material,” the imposition of duplicative financial assurance requirements and new methane requirements, and the regulation of lead content in ammunition and fishing tackle.
“For too long the EPA has been devastating working families in West Virginia and around the country, with excessive rules and regulations that have closed businesses and sent people to the unemployment line,” says West Virginia Congressman David McKinley. “Now we are using the power of the purse to hold the EPA accountable and stop its destructive policies while funding necessary programs that promote clean water, fight wildfires, and protect our natural resources.”
McKinley helped craft the bill and hopes to see it enacted this year, but is under no illusions about that prospect. (Three times now he's introduced a bill in the House to prevent the regulatory ruin of West Virginia's coal industry.)
Why bother? Because next year's another year. It could be different.
