State AG Defends … Lead Pipes?

Join each day information updates from CleanTechnica on electronic mail. Or observe us on Google Information!

In terms of clear know-how, it’s fairly simple to overlook the know-how we have already got. Issues like cleaner air, water that received’t kill you, and meals that’s fit for human consumption all come from the know-how of yesterday that we take without any consideration as we speak. That having been mentioned, the advances aren’t at all times shared evenly by everybody in society, with some elements of not solely the creating world however even the US nonetheless catching up.

Sadly, one in every of these areas is lead pipes. In most newer buildings in areas developed extra just lately, there are not any lead pipes. Lead pipes can be cheaper and simpler to work with, however the feds banned these many years in the past. PVC and metallic pipes reign supreme for brand spanking new building, however for older buildings and neighborhoods, the water that goes to the faucet typically nonetheless has traces of lead from outdated pre-ban pipes.

You’d assume there can be no opposition to doing no matter it takes to get these lead pipes changed with one thing safer for human well being, however sadly, you’d be mistaken. It seems that there are some conservatives whose lead pipes must be wrested from their chilly, useless fingers.

Biden desires to exchange lead pipes. He failed to say that the unfunded mandate units an virtually unattainable timeline, will price billions, infringe on the rights of the States and their residents – all for advantages that could be totally speculative. #sotu https://t.co/CD6zaEHK9M

— Kris W. Kobach (@KrisKobach1787) March 8, 2024

Kris W. Kobach, the lawyer basic for Kansas, desires us to be very involved. Why? As a result of the globalist megamind Joe Biden (who’s by some means additionally a blubbering, incompetent outdated man) is planning on changing lead pipes! GASP! The horrors!

He may very well be proper to be involved about prices and timetables, although. I imply, it’s the outdated “No bucks, no Buck Rogers” drawback. We will’t hand-wave that difficulty away, clearly. And everybody on each side of the aisle agrees that authorities strikes slowly, so timetables have to be lifelike if we really need one thing to occur.

If he had stopped at considerations about cash, time, and bureaucratic effectivity, I’d have given him a move and perhaps even written an article explaining that the federal authorities ought to present cash that states can’t print, however he stored digging his gap deeper.

For one, there’s no such factor as “states’ rights.” There are, clearly, state powers as defined within the tenth Modification, restricted by the 14th Modification, and additional restricted by state constitutions, however solely folks have precise bona fide rights. However, even when states had rights, they most actually don’t have any proper to drive folks to maintain lead pipes or cease the federal authorities from having lead pipes eliminated. If Kansas doesn’t like that, they should see if they’ll get the Supreme Court docket to overturn Wickard v Filburn and different circumstances that expanded federal energy within the Forties (an actual chance today).

However what was much more damning than making a spurious “states’ rights” argument was the pseudoscience he then used to try to justify taking a pro-lead pipe place. Because the Neighborhood Be aware made clear, the advantages of not having your ingesting water are available contact with lead are something however speculative.

Whereas this entire factor comes off to me as considerably weird, there’s a actual drawback on show right here. Irrespective of how far ahead we transfer as a society, there are individuals who will bizarrely resist any and all technological change, regardless of how helpful and seemingly non-controversial.

This leaves us within the unlucky place of not solely needing to elucidate the advantages of newer issues like EVs, photo voltaic panels, and wind energy, but additionally having to elucidate to weirdos that issues like lead pipes are indisputably unhealthy for human well being.

That places plenty of work on us as a motion, nevertheless it’s work we’ve to maintain placing in to make a greater world.