Temperature Under Legal Consideration as a ‘Polutant’
According to a report from the Washington Examiner, environmental activist group Columbia Riverkeeper is suing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt because fish are dying due to “temperature pollution,” or something.
Columbia Riverkeeper, the group suing the former Oklahoma attorney general, wants the EPA to use its Clean Water Act authority to step in and protect the salmon from the high summertime temperatures of the Columbia and Snake rivers.
The group’s director, Brett VandenHeuvel, argues that temperature should be regulated like a pollutant. “Temperature pollution killed those fish,” he said in an interview with the Portland Busniess Journal.
The biggest problem with the suit – the government has no power over the weather – none, zero, zilch.
The second issue is that the group is complaining about “high summertime temperatures” … which tend to happen in .. summertime.
Critics claim that this is a back-handed attempt to make climate change an official government regulatory issue even though it is not.
The rest of America just realizes that it’s hot in the summer and if the fish can’t hang … then they fry – and we like fried fish (although I prefer my salmon smoked.)