Bucks County Climate Lawsuit Shows Why Republicans Are the Stupid Party

A lawsuit filed by Bucks County, Pennsylvania, against BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Philips 66, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) for climate damages has gotten a lot of attention over the past few days. The climate co-opted mainstream press is cheerleading for the cause, of course, because that's what happens when you tap their knees with anything seemingly all about the environment. The basic story may be found at Energy In Depth - Climate (follow the links when you get there to grasp the big picture).

There are a numerous issues with this lawsuit:

• This is one of those contingency fee lawsuits financed by some special-interest tax-exempt non-profit set up by the Rockefellers or their ilk. The purpose, per se, is not to win but, rather, to harass the industry everywhere possible in hopes of forcing it to abandon or go soft on anything but renewables. The ethics of filing such frivolous lawsuits are highly questionable, to say the least, and the whole thing illustrates just how corruptible our justice system truly is in the absence of ‘loser pays’ rules common in other countries.

• This is obviously a nationally cooridinated effort among a slect group of parties that raises questions of RICO violations.

• The basis of the lawsuit amounts to nothing more than conjecture.

• It's not at all clear how the decision to proceed with the lawsuit was ever vderymade. There was little or no public discussion prior to filing.

• The potential impacts on Bucks County and the risks involved in filing this lawsuit don't seem to have been discussed in the least.

All of these issues are serious and deserve to be investigated further and in depth. What interests me at the moment, though, are two things.

First, let me just briefly note API has been named a party and that is very significant. Why? Because API, under its current leadership and the direction of majors such as those also named as defendants, spends all of its time trying ride the fence and avoid direct conflict with the Biden Administration and the grifters and ideologues the latter views as its constituents. Biden and crew is at war with the industry and API seems only interested in improving the terms of surrender. It’s a loser strategy and has paid no dividends whatseover, as evidenced by it being drug into this lawsuit. Appeasement only yields more defeat.

This brings me to my second interest in this case; which is directly related to the aforementioned loser strategy and extends far beyound API and industry majors. It's about the fact this was a unanimous decision of the three-member Board of Commissioners of Bucks and one of the Commissioners is a Republican, which explains exactly why the Republican Party (of which I an a member) is the 'stupid party’ others have called it for so long.

Yes, Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo is a Republican. He won office to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1994 and, as Bucks County progressively urbanized and became ever more ignorant about growing food, producing energy and the like, he decided to moderate his views to align with ignorance in hopes appeasement was just the ticket. He voted with Democrats against a bill to rein in DEP over-regulation, for example:

Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, a moderate Republican from Bucks County, voted against the whole package. He said the bills were designed to address the real problem of slow Department of Environmental Protection permitting.

But, DiGirolamo added, “all we need to do is hire 25, 30, 40 more employees over at DEP to quicken up or expedite this permitting problem,” not “go out and hire third-party entities and create new offices.”

Southeast Pennsylvania Republicans, just like so many Republicans in other blue states, always suppose going Democrat-light is the way to win, but, in reality, it only proves one has few principles, so real Democrats look for real Democrat candidates and real Republicans push away in disgust, so the net result is a steady erosion of support. That steady erosion gave DiGirolamo his closest call with his 2018 re-election campaign. Therefore, he saw the handwriting on the wall and decided it was a safer bet to run for Bucks County Commissioner, resigning his House seat when he won. He did so because Pennsylvania law ensures there is at least one minority Commissioner and, with his name recognition, it was a pretty sure bet he could switch to that job.

It's hardly surprising DiGirolamo voted for the lawsuit given this background. Like all establishment Republicans he's still a big fan of appeasement. It seems rarely to occur to such folks that standing firm might be its own reward with an electorate desperately seeking some level of authentic behavior from its politicians. He did stand firm on pro-life issues, so I'll give him credit for that, but, it’s the excuses DiGirolamo used for supporting the climate lawsuit that bring pandering to a new level. Consider this local story (emphasis added):

Highlighted in the lawsuit are specific severe weather incidents, such as the July 2021 storm that unleashed 8 to 10 inches of rain in Lower Bucks County, the devastating flooding in Upper Makefield Township in 2023 that resulted in seven deaths, and a noticeable increase in severe tornadoes…

Bucks County contends that the ongoing and future impacts of climate change, including worsening storms, heatwaves, and floods made worse by the rising waters of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, will continually pose risks.

Commissioners Bob Harvie, a Democrat, and Gene DiGirolamo, a Republican, along with Commissioner Chairperson Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, all expressed strong support for the lawsuit. They stood together at the Bucks County Administration building to announce its filing…

“This suit is our tool to recoup costs and fund public works projects like bolstering or replacing bridges, retrofitting county-owned buildings and commencing stormwater management projects, all of which will put us in the best possible position to weather what is certain to come,” she added. 

“These companies have known since at least the 1950s that their ways of doing business were having calamitous effects on our planet, and rather than change what they were doing or raise the alarm, they lied to all of us,” said DiGirolamo. “The taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for these companies and their greed.”

DiGirolamo, whose family farmed for years in Bensalem Township, said he’s noticed the weather become more severe over the years. He said the citizens and government end up paying for the impacts of manmade climate change.

“I’ll be very honest with you,” DiGirolamo said. “We had some really bad weather back in the 60s and 70s and 80s when I was farming. I just never remember the extreme weather conditions that we’ve had here, not only in Bucks County, but I mean throughout the region and throughout the country extreme weather. How many people it has affected?”

When asked by reporters, DiGirolamo said he thinks climate change isn’t a political issue and it’s impacts will be felt by everyone for years to come.

“This is something what we have to fix,” he said. “For our children and our grandchildren, and I often think of them, we have to protect them and we’ve got to do something together.”

“It is unconscionable that while we were working hard to reduce our impact on the climate crisis, some of the biggest companies in the world were deliberately undercutting those efforts through their deceptive business practices,” Harvie said.

The county has taken steps towards sustainability, including planning a solar field in Bristol Township and purchasing electric vehicles.

One cannot read DiGirolamo's remarks without imagining he must be a Democrat. His remarks, in fact, are arguably well to the left of the other two Democrat Commissioners. It also appears a big reason for him going along with the lawsuit is simply to grab some money for wasting on a combination of building projects and wasteful, uneconomical EV and solar boondoggles.

But, notice how evasive DiGirolamo is when it comes to describing what he means by ‘extreme weather.’ He doesn't say temperatures have increased, for instance, probably because he knows that data has is highly suspect as a result of the urbanization of Bucks County and other factors.

The lawsut and the stories that surround it, though, emphasize, rain, storms and flooding. Each of these relate to precipitation and it's hard to mess that data up. So, was there extreme precipitation?

Well, USA Facts has assembled precipitation data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and here is the data for March from 1900 through 2023. It shows the highest precipitation over the 124 years was in 1912, when it was 8.18 inches:

And, there is this chart showing how it looks for every month over the same period:

It’s hard to discern any clear patterns out of this whatsoever and that’s the point. Weather changes constantly and so does climate, but DiGirolamo is reading from climate cult’s script. Why?

Yes, why is a long-time Republican playing the role of sycophant as opposed to the honorable and necessary one of loyal opposition? Does he not understand there is an alternative viewpoint that needs expression? Does he not grasp that the EVs and solar project on which he’s spending taxpayer money are a waste? Does he not, at his age, realize weather goes in cycles, that urbanization is more likely the cause of flood damages than weather? Does he not grasp how this lawfare he’s supporting is undermining every aspect of our Consitution?

Apparently not, and that’s how Republicans have earned the ‘Stupid Party’ designation. Democrats, by contrast, never ever back away from their positions and press ahead at every opportunity, no matter how far removed they are from public opinion. They just adapt their language, project their failures on Republicans and march ahead in unison. Gene DiGirolamo may be a good person. I have no reason to believe he’s not, in fact, but he’s not helping anyone with his stance on this lawsuit. Sad.

#DiGirolamo #BucksCounty #Democrats #Republicans #Climate #Lawsuit