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US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

nature.com

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Re: US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

#11

Post by wahern »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #7

Do they really need to conduct a study to determine that spewing black smoke into the air hurts human beings? The Coal lobby must love Trump. Glad millennials won't work for Coal or Oil.

I don't have an opinion on whether the government should complete the study, but one reason for doing so is that such government agency studies are admissible in court to prove facts. The rules of evidence are complex, but long story short such government investigative studies can be extremely valuable for both plaintiffs and defendants by making it easier and cheaper to meet evidentiary burdens of production and persuasion.

If an administration believes a study's findings would be detrimental to a group it wishes to protect, it might choose to terminate the study before it gets published.

Here's a brief legal article on the subject: https://www.pbwt.com/content/uploads/2015/07/Admission-of-Go...

Re: US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

#12

Post by koolba »

wavefunction wrote: post #3
cjslep wrote: post #2

"But think of the freedom of speech!" In all seriousness though, the most important bit wasn't even clarified by the article: The agency says it is reviewing spending on all projects that cost more than $100,000. So is it actually true and I'm supposed to be manipulated into outrage due to cherry picking this one project? Or is it false and I'm supposed to be actually outraged at this shadowy deceitful action?

I don't know, can you think for yourself and decide whether the issue is important to you or not?

The issue of reducing wasteful spending across the government, at all levels, is near and dear to many of us.

Re: US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

#13

Post by nthcolumn »

yahna wrote: post #9
nthcolumn wrote: post #4

So glad POTUS did this. It is a huge waste of money to find out what the general public already know. The health effects are very, very bad! The worst!

Nah, you just clean the coal and it's fine.

So many jobs washing coal coal is so dirty. Dirty as, well, coal. Can you imagine how many jobs? I can't, so many.

Re: US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

#14

Post by eridius »

cjslep wrote: post #2

"But think of the freedom of speech!" In all seriousness though, the most important bit wasn't even clarified by the article: The agency says it is reviewing spending on all projects that cost more than $100,000. So is it actually true and I'm supposed to be manipulated into outrage due to cherry picking this one project? Or is it false and I'm supposed to be actually outraged at this shadowy deceitful action?

It can be true and you can still be outraged, because that justification is probably just an excuse to can projects that the current government doesn't like.

Re: US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

#15

Post by parzivalm »

koolba wrote: post #12
wavefunction wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, can you think for yourself and decide whether the issue is important to you or not?

The issue of reducing wasteful spending across the government, at all levels, is near and dear to many of us.

I'm still waiting for us to actually cut wasteful spending in areas like defense. Too bad that will never happen. The Gov can just keep cutting science spending.

Re: US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

#17

Post by r00fus »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #7

Do they really need to conduct a study to determine that spewing black smoke into the air hurts human beings? The Coal lobby must love Trump. Glad millennials won't work for Coal or Oil.

Some millennials certainly will work in the petroleum business. They get paid good money in the extraction industry and are willing to train you & keep you certified.

That it's destroying the environment - well I'm sure the folks so employed will be as happy for their jobs as the ones on hedge funds front-running the entire market or those in big pharma who research and market the next addictive pain-killer.

Re: US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

#18

Post by rayiner »

parzivalm wrote: post #15
koolba wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue of reducing wasteful spending across the government, at all levels, is near and dear to many of us.

I'm still waiting for us to actually cut wasteful spending in areas like defense. Too bad that will never happen. The Gov can just keep cutting science spending.

Fun fact: even when you exclude defense spending, total government expenditures per capita (federal, state, and local) are $1,500 per year higher in the US than in Canada.

Re: US government halts study on health effects of coal mining

#19

Post by KirinDave »

koolba wrote: post #12
wavefunction wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, can you think for yourself and decide whether the issue is important to you or not?

The issue of reducing wasteful spending across the government, at all levels, is near and dear to many of us.

And as such these tiny tiny cuts are a good idea?

It's very dangerous to call defunding of sciences and regulatory oversight to be "wasteful" spending. They are both inexpensive and tend to be valable for decades to come.

Maybe Trump, his team, and the Republican majority in every branch of government could do something positive about entitlement spending? It'd be great to get back to a US where we actually spend non-trivial money on core science.

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