I wonder if those Americans who voted to strengthen the power of right wing politicians last November ever bothered to check back on what they created? Have they even noticed the monster they’ve left for the rest of us to deal with? Do they feel badly about the damage that has been caused, both here and abroad? As if the fight to save the environment and to reverse the ravages of global warming weren’t already difficult enough, the midterm elections of 2014 made virtually everything exponentially worse.

Just today, the House Appropriations Committee (which is made up of these shysters)

furthered Congressional attempts to satisfy their fossil fuel bosses by approving this stinker:

This was the Sierra Club’s response to the House Appropriations Committee’s end run:

I’ve read the actual Bill (HR 114). It’s petty, mean, and weird. All kinds of strange anti-abortion provisions (and this is for activities solely abroad), protections for coal (again, abroad) and maneuvers to counter any possible attempt to salvage the environment. You seriously have to wonder who sits up and writes this stuff, which aggressively and viciously tries to narrow every exit strategy out of this boondoggle. It’s like a never-ending case of Whack-A-Mole…

For every small victory in the fight to reverse anthropomorphic climate change, oil and gas corporation sell-outs amplify their efforts and find ingenius ways to go around the entire process.

Can’t (legally) export oil? Find a loophole or write a loophole that no one has to approve that allows such exports through the unsuspecting Department of Commerce! 

Can’t stop the work of the UN IPCC? Cut American funding of all UN climate-related programs!

Can’t derail the movement by voters to ban fracking in states and cities? Make a ban on fracking ILLEGAL!

Yada yada yada. I’ll tell you one thing that looks like a beneficial loophole, which they may not realize…check out page 221. line 18 and keep TPP in the back of your mind….