{"id":3388,"date":"2020-01-17T05:50:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T10:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3388"},"modified":"2020-01-17T05:50:29","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T10:50:29","slug":"how-are-we-gonna-top-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3388","title":{"rendered":"How Are We Gonna Top THAT?!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"412\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/JPA222.jpg\" alt=\"How Are We Gonna Top THAT?!\" class=\"wp-image-3389\" srcset=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/JPA222.jpg 560w, http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/JPA222-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps as Michiganders we are a bit more sensitive to drinking water issues than most Americans. What with our 11,000 lakes (Great and otherwise)&nbsp;we are constantly reminder\n our this precious natural resource. Add to this the recent disasters of\n the Flint water crisis and discoveries of PFAS contamination, and, \nwell, you could say there is ample reason for our heightened interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So  I was naturally drawn to the recent news of the US House passing a bill  to require the EPA to set limits for PFAS content in drinking water.  The EPA has been to a certain extent already in the process of doing  this, but the bill is intended to expedite the process. All good and  seemingly straightforward. But this was swiftly followed by a threat  from the White House that the president would veto the bill (assuming it  passes the Senate). I paraphrased in the cartoon, but the actual quote  was this:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;The  regulatory process works best when EPA and other agencies are free to  devise regulations based on the best available science and careful  consideration of all the relevant facts.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This\n struck me as quite an audacious statement. For several reasons. First, \nthe endorsement of the regulatory process. Up to this point, the current\n administration has made it pretty clear their position on regulation in\n general (against). But to suddenly align themselves with &#8220;the best \navailable science&#8221; and &#8220;careful consideration of facts&#8221;? Oh my gosh, who\n wrote this?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\n can&#8217;t tell whether the statement is actually earnest or if it was \nwritten to mess with us. But if it&#8217;s the latter, it reminded me of a \nlyric from a recent Ben Folds song:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>They say it [truth] dies in the dark<br>Right now, they&#8217;re trying to kill it in broad daylight<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps as Michiganders we are a bit more sensitive to drinking water issues than most Americans. What with our 11,000 lakes (Great and otherwise)&nbsp;we are constantly reminder our this precious natural resource. Add to this the recent disasters of the Flint water crisis and discoveries of PFAS contamination, and, well, you could say there is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andrewheller-com","category-editorial-cartoon","category-michiganpress-org","category-michiganradio-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3390,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions\/3390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}