Movie Analysis Essay on War on the EPA

Introduction

A clean and safe environment is a constitutional right to every American Citizen. Every citizen is entitled to access an environment which is free from pollutants as a proactive mechanism of anticipating challenges that come along the environmental pollution and its subsequent Climate change. Here in America, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the legal institution mandated with the role of supervision and management of all production activities to ensure that they are done in an environmentally sound manner. In environmental protection functions, the EPA has faced constant fights from coal energy producers who have presumed that the environmental regulations and standards stipulated with EPA targets the industry and are trying to demean their profits and source of income (Frontline, 2018). However, the purpose of environmental protection and preservation exceeds the personal gain since the environment has an intrinsic moral value that needs to be protected for the benefit of all humankind to the future generation. In that, if you harm the environment, you are hurting yourself.

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In President Barrack Obama's tenure as the head of State in America, he placed much focus on the environmental protection by enacting the law on clean energy production and green power plant. The bill was intended for the general good of public health and safety by reviewing and assessing activities done with energy industries which pollute the environment. The law was hugely challenged with investors in the coal industry and Republican Congress member who claimed the law would see the closure of sector that supports the economy of the nation. A war began against the EPA to ensure that it does not implement the law; it was led with Mr. Scott Pruitt and Bob Murray (Frontline, 2018). However, the reason for opposing the EPA regulations on energy was the protection of the livelihood of people that depend on the coal industry which was a threat. Hence, as much as the sector contributed towards climate change but its source of income to the community its activities are justified.

The environment contains primary components of human life, water, and air. As such, a clean environment has clean water and air which are all necessities in support of life. With the implementation of the green energy plants policy, Obama's government through the EPA agency wanted to protect the water resources and the air in the community where the coal industries are located (Frontline, 2018). Usually, coal extraction and industrial processing in the production of energy emits significant amounts of dust particles and carbon IV oxide. The dust particles are respiratory disease-causing agents for conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and asbestosis. Equally, carbon IV oxide in the plants smoke contributes to a large percentage of ozone gases that result in climate change. For Mr. Pruitt, the EPA assertion of the effect of coal as a subject to climate change was scientifically unproven, and it relied on biased claims. Therefore, the activities of the agency would significantly retard the economies of coal-dependent communities.

Moreover, the ground of agenda formation for the clean and green energy plant policy was to anticipate land and water pollutions; as a result effluents and other toxic pollutants from the coal industries. The coal industries have open dumping sites for their effluents in the community which is composed of the chemical and by-products of the industrial processes which are harmful to environmental safety (Frontline, 2018). First, from the open dump sites, the substances are infiltrated and washed down into the hydrological system as such, the system supplies the community with polluted water which is unsafe for human consumption and aquatic life. Secondly, the dumpsites are a source of odor smell and disease-causing pathogens which threaten human health. Mr. Pruitt decided to ignore the benefits of the EPA regulation on the ordinary citizen but fight for the economy of the wealth. His notion places a threat to the environment which is depended on with the future generations.

The EPA clean and green energy regulation was meaningful not only to America but also the rest of the world who greatly welcomed the idea in the climate change conference held in Paris, France (Frontline, 2018). The success of the conference implies that indeed, the stipulated concerns over the effect of non-renewable sources of energy in America, coal on climate change are valid and that Obama's EPA was fighting a global disaster. If the climate change were to happen then, the world would then experience unpredicted variation in climatic seasons, lifestyle change due to change weather patterns, an increase of sea levels and desertification. Anticipating these effects is more significant than the consideration of the economic value of nature for personal gain to reverse the environmental policy. Mr. Pruitt and his allies should have considered the knowledge of scientists, engineers, and researchers in EPA before setting up their fight against the environmental agency and the law.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the appointment of Mr. Pruitt as the EPA administrator was a fight against the environmental protection and creation of a safe environment for man; it was a political decision. His time in the EPA office saw the abolishment of the green energy policy and promoted the activities of the coal miners. The decision was greatly celebrated with investors in coal industry such as Bob Murray and miners who presumed that their economic activity would continue without a disturbance. They scraped off the essential benefits necessary for the protection of the environment. With such consideration in environmental protection matters, then Americans and the rest of the world are conditioned to a harmful environment.

Reference

Frontline. (2018). War on the EPA Season 35 Episode 16 | 54m 37s [Video]. Retrieved from http:// https://www.pbs.org/video/war-on-the-epa-tz8z7j/