Tom Wolf’s ‘Environmental Justice’ Adventure

What, precisely, is “Environmental Justice?”

Whatever it is, Pennsylvania must not have any, because, in October, Governor Tom Wolf issued an executive order to get some.

According to Wolf, “Environmental Justice” is, “The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the Commonwealth’s development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”

Sounds “fair,” even “meaningful,” right?

Wolf’s order also states: “The EJ Plan should include recommendations for advancing Environmental Justice, focusing attention on the environmental and public health issues and challenges confronting the Commonwealth’s minority and low-income populations.”

Wolf simply cannot address anything without injecting a gratuitous racial element, because…unity…or something…

One news report read: “Governor Tom Wolf added a new office in the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to ensure all Pennsylvanians are considered in decisions to protect the environment.”

Will “all Pennsylvanians” include coal miners, gas field workers, and every citizen/family whose lives and/or livelihoods depend upon carbon-based fuels – literally, everyone? Will Wolf consider ordinary citizens’ opinions concerning regulatory requirements, if any, or methods?

Nope.

“Environment” is everywhere, dontcha know?! Ditto, injustice! Apparently, Wolf thinks Pennsylvania’s constitutionally-created court system can’t handle the load, that “Environmental Justice” can only be served by an extra-constitutional (kangaroo) court staffed with earnest, unelected bureaucrats as “judges,” plus two phony juries.

Wolf’s order “permanently” establishes a new “Office of Environmental Justice,… headed by a director of Environmental Justice…appointed by the DEP secretary.”

It also orders a new “Environmental Justice Advisory Board” and an “Environmental Justice Interagency Council” to be formed “within 90 days,” to meet “semiannually,” and (presumably) sit around, discuss …stuff…, then issue one-size-fits-all “rules” administered under the DEP’s enforcement authority.

On that timeline, before the governor leaves office next year, unspecified numbers of unelected, politically-correct, virtue-signaling pseudo-experts will meet…exactly…twice!

“Environmental Justice” must be an easy fix.

Wolf often forgets for whom he works. Like other arrogant, autocratic, condescending, elected left-liberal “royalty” who treat citizens like subjects, Wolf considers regular Pennsylvanians too “unsophisticated” to know what’s best for them, their families and communities.

But, then, assuming an unearned sense of superiority is central to most liberals’ self-image.

The left imagines that “ordinary” people need guidance from silver spoon “experts” like Tom Wolf who, assisted by other hand-picked “experts,” already botched his dictatorial COVID mandates so badly that Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly voted to limit the governor’s emergency powers.

The governor learned nothing from that experience.

Amusingly, Wolf’s order mimics a ghostwritten executive order signed during his first days in office by known-plagiarist President(ish) Joe Biden.

The governor’s version reads: “…[T]he Federal government has underscored the significance of Environmental Justice in Executive Order 14008 of January 27, 2021, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, and prioritized Environmental Justice through actions such as development of a White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council, creation of a geospatial Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool and maps and direction that 40 percent of Federal investments benefit disadvantaged communities.”

It’s all classic hack-speak. Wolf’s “Environmental Justice” order merely adopts/supplements an anonymous presidential puppeteer’s opaque weasel words, none of which mean anything positive for Pennsylvania, the economy, public health, public safety, justice, or, for that matter, the environment.

Worse, self-important, tone-deaf, out-of-touch left-liberal ideologues, including the governor, clearly expect Wolf’s “beneficiaries” to be somehow grateful for his incessant, offensive “executive” assumptions that minority/low-income citizens, generally, are (fill in the blank) victims who lack personal agency and responsibility.

“Environmental Justice” is another example of how petty tyrants misuse terms like “public health,” “public safety,” “environment” and “justice” in false-good catchphrases designed to stifle public debate, manufacture “crises,” raise public anxiety, gain influence, accumulate power and exert control.

Wolf’s – the entire left’s – fundamental theory of governance is based on paternalism, hysteria, moral superiority, virtue signaling, racial/cultural division, limiting personal freedoms, and a pathological disregard for taxpayers’ economic well-being.

One wonders, does Tom Wolf’s “Environmental Justice” brainchild have a future?

Does Pennsylvania’s legislature have a constitutional role in defining Commonwealth agencies’ authority or creating new departments? Does the legislature hold constitutional responsibility for confirming gubernatorial nominees or appropriating funds to increase public employee headcount/payroll?

If the legislature does [Spoiler alert: It does], then what chance, other than “none,” does another empty gesture by a self-superior, condescending, overbearing, increasingly-irrelevant lame duck governor have of being approved in either chamber?

https://www.pottsmerc.com/2021/11/08/tom-wolfs-excellent-environmental-justice-adventure/