Well, since that policy has worked so well in the Sunshine State (tidal flooding you can drive your truck through and soak the poors anyone? Yee-haw!), officials at the federal level are allegedly adopting a ban on mentioning climate change of their own.
On Wednesday, Politico reported that unnamed staffers within the energy department's Office of International Climate and Clean Energy said those employed within the office were instructed not to use phrases that include "climate change," "emissions reduction" or "Paris Agreement" in written communication. They were told to instead use words like "jobs" and "infrastructure" instead, because everyone like those.
Use of those phrases relating to you-know-what, staffers were told, "would cause a 'visceral reaction' with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, his immediate staff, and the cadre of White House advisers at the top of the department."
There's also concern the entire division might be facing an existential threat, given that it has the word "climate" in it.
Perry, of course, is the former presidential candidate who didn't even remember that there was a Department of Energy, but he wanted to do away with it anyway back in 2011 — waaay back when he was trying to impress his Republican friends without saying anything too racist or sexist on national television (which is apparently totally OK now and can indeed get you elected president). And Trump made him head of DOE. Just because.
So seeing a division of DOE disappear because it doesn't help corporate polluters/donors get off, ahem, scot-free for ruining the planet doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
According to the Politico piece, a spokeswoman for DOE denied that any "words or phrases have been banned for this office or anyone in the department,”
Because of course.
Word of the ban on mentioning climate change, a phenomenon well-established by the scientific community that's slowly happening before our eyes (especially in Florida, where routine flooding and coastal erosion and regular freak weather weren't as much of a thing back when Trump was fighting his personal Vietnam), comes the day after Trump signed an executive order rolling back environmental protections, including the Clean Power Plan, which would have drastically reduced carbon emissions from some of the worst carbon culprits, power companies.
This article appears in Mar 23-30, 2017.