It would be like hearing all of West Virginia's political leaders saying nice things about the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Can you imagine Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, Representative Evan Jenkins, and State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey singing the praises of Gina McCarthy (or her predecessor, Lisa Jackson)?
But McCarthy and Jackson aren't there anymore. They're gone. The war on coal is over.
There's a new guy running the EPA whose perspective and objectives are markedly different from his predecessors'. He thinks that the mission of the agency is to protect the environment, not destroy the economy.
In fact, President Donald Trump's new EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, spent the last several years, as Oklahoma's state attorney general, fighting the excesses of the EPA.
That's why Manchin, Capito, Jenkins, and Morrisey are praising him.
Manchin, one of only two Democrats who voted to confirm the new chief, says “Pruitt knows that I believe it is important that the EPA is working with states like West Virginia, not against us.”
Capito says Pruitt “embodies the leadership we need to restore accountability to the agency. He will return the EPA to its core mission of protecting public and environmental health while balancing economic impact.”
Jenkins expresses confidence that Pruitt “will be a friend to West Virginia.”
Morrisey concurs that “West Virginia will have a friend in Scott Pruitt.”
Yes, the strangest things are happening, and we're not hallucinating, and we couldn't be happier.
