On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher criticized President Donald Trump’s administration for its rollback on environmental regulations but did say that environmentalists have “exaggerated” at times and didn’t help their cause “sometimes, by predicting, like, oh, well, we’re going to hit past the tipping point if we don’t do something by 2012, and then we did,” but “it’s still really happening, guys, it’s not a hoax, okay.”
Maher said, “I always thought, when Trump first ran, the most damage he possibly could do would be the environment, because he was always talking about what a hoax global warming was. And, look, have, sometimes, they exaggerated, have some — I don’t think they did themselves any favors, sometimes, by predicting, like, oh, well, we’re going to hit past the tipping point if we don’t do something by 2012, and then we did, and now — but it’s still really happening, guys, it’s not a hoax, okay.”
He continued, “So, here’s what’s going on: We had something called the engagement rule in 2009. This said the feds got to regulate fossil fuels because we believe they are a danger to public health. Well, what happened yesterday? Trump ended government’s legal authority to regulate, basically, what causes pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency cannot now protect us against pollution. This is like the Navy can’t use ships.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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