Missouri and Kansas lawmakers subvert the will of the people in favor of fossil fuels
If our nation’s accelerating slide toward autocracy isn’t reversed soon, we can wave goodbye to federal action on climate. The fossil fuel industries could run wild. The United States could keep dumping billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year, and other nations would have an excuse not to rein in their own emissions.
No nation or community on Earth would be spared the consequences of the catastrophic increase of 5 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit in global temperature that would result. In the Kansas City area, intense heat waves and floods would become much more frequent and dangerous. The deadly one-two punch of unprecedented heat and extreme humidity, along with increases in ozone pollution, black mold from water damage, insect-borne diseases and other health threats could render the region almost unlivable.
This chain of events, starting with a nationwide crumbling of electoral democracy and ending in misery, both local and global, is already unfolding. More than 200 bills recently introduced in Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country would enable election outcomes that contradict the will of the voters, according to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Protect Democracy Project. Among these 33 states, Missouri ties for the fifth largest number of antidemocracy bills introduced, Kansas for seventh.
Nationwide, these bills — some of them already signed into law — would enact a wide range of measures, including suppression of voting in areas with large minority populations, criminal charges against election workers or voting-rights organizations based on trumped-up accusations, replacement of local and state election officials with partisan operatives, and even empowerment of state legislatures to ignore their voters’ presidential choice and submit their own slates of electors.
The GOP’s subversion of election administration in the states, if successful, could allow them to grab control of both houses of Congress and the White House by 2025, regardless of whether they actually won the elections that put them there. The new regime, following examples set by authoritarian leaders of nations like Hungary and Iran, could then pass laws to keep itself in power for the foreseeable future, maybe decades.
The consequences for climate are all too easy to forecast. Donald Trump’s four-year crusade to eliminate all environmental regulation was backed almost unanimously by his party. Post-Trump congressional Republicans have continued to block all climate legislation.
If the GOP achieves unchallengeable dominance through corrupt means and holds it for an extended time, any possibility of cutting America’s greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2040 (as climate science tells us we must) would be smothered. Urban air pollution and abuse of the nation’s lands and waters would go unchecked as well.
It’s not only at the ballot box that Americans could be robbed of our right to push for climate action. The current rush toward autocracy features an avalanche of new state and local legislation that would further criminalize public protest. Not surprisingly, many of these measures to suppress nonviolent dissent reflect the authoritarian right’s love of fossil fuels.
For example, some states — including Missouri and Kansas — have passed laws that would punish nonviolent demonstrators seen anywhere in the vicinity of oil or gas pipelines or power plants. Hardest hit would be the Indigenous communities, who have led the struggle against the fossil fuel industry.
Others bills or laws prioritize the rights of vehicles over those of people. Some prescribe severe penalties for anyone who impedes traffic flow at or near the scene of a lawful demonstration. Jaywalking could thereby become a felony. Even worse, laws in Oklahoma and Florida would absolve drivers of legal responsibility if their vehicle hits a pedestrian near the scene of a protest.
In short, if the legislative and executive branches of the federal government follow the Supreme Court into the clutches of the far right, then all of us alive today, plus future generations of humans and the entire ecosphere, will be in deep, deep trouble.
But if over the next two years, we as citizens, voters and elected representatives manage to fend off the authoritarian power grab, we might just buy our nation another decade or two in which to head off climate catastrophe before it’s too late.