DL Open Thread: Monday, June 2, 2025

State’s Largest Polluter Ups Its Pollution Quotient–With Impunity:

The Delaware City Refinery has been continuously releasing more than permitted amounts of toxic sulfur dioxide into the air for a week now, but air quality in the area remains safe, according to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. (Writer’s Note:  I don’t believe them.  They are enablers, not enforcers.)

Historically, the Delaware City Refinery has been the state’s biggest polluter, frequently cited for air pollution violations. In October 2024, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control found that the refinery had deviated from its permit standards nine times between September 2022 and August 2023 and fined the refinery $75,000.  (Writer’s Note: Pathetic.)

More than 86,000 people live within a 5-mile radius of the refinery, over half of whom are people of color and 20% of whom are lower-income, according to EPA data. Due to federal rules regarding diversity, equity and inclusion, earlier this year, the EPA canceled a $500,000 grant that would have allowed the nonprofit Clean Air Council to monitor air pollution in the area of the refinery.

Doesn’t matter as long as the State and DNREC continue to display no concern for the residents who live nearby.  Because ‘jobsjobsjobs’.  Hey, that’s Speaker Mimi’s district.  Perhaps she’ll take some initiative…

On a related environmental note–Dark Money From Dark Roof Manufacturers.  If you guessed that those most impacted are people of color with lower incomes, you guessed correctly:

It began with a lobbyist’s pitch.

Tennessee Rep. Rusty Grills says a lobbyist proposed a simple idea: repeal the state’s requirement for reflective roofs on many commercial buildings.

In late March, Grills and his fellow lawmakers voted to eliminate the rule, scrapping a measure meant to save energy, lower temperatures and protect Tennesseans from extreme heat.

It was another win for a well-organized lobbying campaign led by manufacturers of dark roofing materials.

“The new law will lead to higher energy costs and greater heat-related illnesses and deaths,” state Rep. Harold Love and the Rev. Jon Robinson wrote in a statement.

It will, they warned, make Nashville, Memphis, and other cities hotter — particularly in underserved Black and Latino communities, where many struggle to pay their utility bills. Similar lobbying has played out in Denver, Baltimore and at the national level.

But the weight of the scientific evidence is clear: On hot days, light-colored roofs can stay more than 50 degrees cooler than dark ones, helping cut energy use, curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce heat-related illnesses and deaths. One recent study found that reflective roofs could have saved the lives of more than 240 people who died in London’s 2018 heatwave. 

At least eight states — and more than a dozen cities in other states — have adopted cool-roof requirements, according to the Smart Surfaces Coalition (I recommend you click on this link to learn more), a national group of public health and environmental groups that promote reflective roofs, trees and other solutions to make cities healthier.  (Is Delaware one of them?  We should be.)

‘Robo-Biden’.  Trump is unwell:

President Trump shared an outlandish conspiracy theory on social media on Saturday night saying former President Joseph R. Biden had been “executed in 2020” and replaced by a robotic clone, the latest example of the president amplifying dark, false material to his millions of followers.

Mr. Trump reposted a fringe rant that another user had made on the president’s social media platform, Truth Social, just after 10 p.m. on Saturday. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the post about Mr. Biden, whom Mr. Trump has targeted for criticism almost daily since the start of his second term.

Here are some of the (too few) responses calling out his batshit craziness.  This one sums it up:

If Joe Biden posted something like this Hannity would be roused from his sleep to anchor special coverage. But Trump posts apeshit conspiracy theories and the mainstream press yawns. His craziness has been completely normalized.

Maybe Jake Tapper will write a book–after Trump has finished dismantling everything ‘good’.

‘We Are All Going To Die’.  True, however using that argument to justify heartless cuts to your constituents just might not be your best path to reelection:

Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican facing reelection in 2026, flippantly dismissed voters’ concerns in recent days that people could die if Republicans cut Medicaid as they’ve promised to do in President Donald Trump’s sprawling immigration and tax package.

Speaking at a town hall in Butler County, Iowa, on Friday, Ernst was explaining how the bill would affect Medicaid eligibility when one audience member yelled out that individuals who lost coverage because of the cuts could die.

“Well, we all are going to die,” Ernst replied as the crowd groaned. “So, for heaven’s sakes. For heaven’s sakes, folks.”

While outrage at Ernst’s glib comment was immediate, on Saturday, the senator doubled down with a sarcastic response shared on Instagram.

“I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” she said in a video filmed in what appeared to be a cemetery. “So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”

I think she’s put her reelection firmly into doubt.  Assuming there’s at least one non-feckless Democrat in Iowa.  There may well not be.

Could Jon Ossoff Face Someone Who Makes MTG Seem–Almost Reasonable?

Republicans breathed a sigh of relief three weeks ago when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she wouldn’t run for the Senate next year. But what if they get stuck with someone even worse?

That someone might just be state Sen. Colton Moore, who has called himself Georgia’s “most conservative state senator” and said Thursday that he was considering a bid to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.

“MTG and several generic Republicans have already dropped out,” Colton said in a statement. “The time for a Constitutional candidate is here.”

Here’s a photo of a mentor teaching Colton Moore some math skills:

‘On-n-n-n-e.  Two…’, (Mr. Ed reference deliberate).

What do you want to talk about?