America has once again dug their own grave further by confirming the appointment of Scott Pruitt as the head of the EPA.

What’s the issue?

Scott Pruitt, an Oklahoma attorney general who has been at the forefront of anti-global warming policy making in the United States, has been appointed as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday by the Senate. Pruitt’s long standing history of backing corporate donors over environment regulators earned him a justifiable opposition from the Democratic Party, who rallied all night on the Senate Floor to convince Senator Mitch McConnell to postpone the vote, but the efforts were in vain.

Democrats wanted to push the vote back until after Tuesday, which would be the day when the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office is required to release approximately 3,000 emails belonging to Scott Pruitt that tied him to the fossil fuel industry in terms of receiving donations and incentivizing policy changes that prevented the EPA’s functionality and benefited the corporations.

Pruitt has been known to show his doubts towards the existence of global warming, which combined with the prospect of having deep ties with corporate backers, paint a dangerous picture for the future of American environmental protection. His past of not only having deals with corporate backers but also suing the EPA 14 times over air and water pollution policies proves his direct opposition to the agency and his own investments.

What does this mean?

A very glum prediction awaits the future of the United States in terms of environmental development with the passing of this individual to office. Pruitt’s major endorsement in terms of regulation of the environment was a more state-based method where states would have a large autonomy in terms of regulating emissions and protecting the environment in general.

Pruitt, combined with Trump’s America First Energy plan, sets a dangerous prospect for the upcoming future of the United States. The backing of the coal industry, as well as Pruitt’s past of suing the EPA to block air and water pollution regulations, prove that barely any — if any at all — policies regarding Environmental Protection will be able to be passed.

A strict chokehold has been instilled over the United States government, where the potential of passing legitimate environmental protection policy looks bleak. The precedent that these selections set is that corporate investors now have a complete and effective chokehold over political decision making, meaning the majority of their desirable aspects will be able to be actualized through “donations,” or investments for the future, as it ought to be better labeled.

The most ideal scenario would be a standstill for the democrats, filibustering any endorsed policy that is proposed to benefit corporations and only drive the quality of the environment to the ground. However, that would be under the best of circumstances. Given the situation of a unified government, the environmental security of the country may be in extreme jeopardy.

What does this mean for us?

Refusing to recognize the effects of global warming only sets a precedent of behavior for the general public, as even the most minuscule of behaviors such as general pollution exacerbates the effects of environmental damage significantly. This level of governmental refusal of recognition sets a public standard for what is ideal behavior, and that logically can only exacerbate the issue exponentially.

As mentioned earlier, this also means that corporate businesses recognize their drastic influence in the passing of politics and how much mere donations could make to manipulate lobbyists to significantly sway politics. Given the series of executive orders as well as the behavior of America’s current president, it seems that the United States Federal Government have a lot of investment in personal business endeavors, and that only gives more incentive to large scale corporations for working closely with the government to manipulate and sway policies entirely to their favor. Capitalism’s pervasion into politics has never been more transparent for such a large global power.

Once again, the situation looks bleak for the environment, and the United States are back in the forefront of exacerbating the problem while feigning ignorance.