Being an outdoorsy type, my latest Trump outrage is the executive order which will probably place twenty-four national monuments in jeopardy. The very idea that the fate of the public's inheritance will be placed in the hands of a coterie of extractive industry executives is infuriating. Trump has placed so many foxes in the henhouse that it is now a foxhouse.
To compound the crime, certain of these monuments were designated to protect sites important to Native Americans, including sites containing priceless artifacts. Trump has long had a willingness to attack Native Americans who have the temerity to get between him and a dollar.
The post title is derived from this album title. If Epping Forest were a national monument, Trump would turn it over to his cronies:
I have confidence that the National Parks Service will be on the forefront of this battle.
One thing we DO seem to be seeing is corporations reacting out of concern to large scale customer offense or outrage, especially as driven by social media. We saw it with the Pepsi commercial, United Airlines, the willingness of large corporations to be LGBT friendly and push back against things like the bathroom law. This is a net positive outcome of the social media revolution, and companies that start to damage beloved American wildlands can expect to take a powerful online hit - to the point where in many cases they'll decide it's not worth it.
ReplyDeleteDemand for fossil fuels is not strong - supplies are commensurate with demand - and the price is low and flat. There's really no big moneymaking opportunity to drill/extract in these few places unless/until the price goes up. Of course, a war with Iran will drive the price up over $150/bbl, and then the calculation might change, but right now I'm not overly worried.
Just like Trumps desperate demand to mine more coal, no energy company actually WANTS to mine more coal, and the decline of coal usage is pretty much locked in now. Things can change, but right now he's pushing on rope...