Biden EPA nominee demands U.S. pay ‘climate reparations’: Ultraleftist law professor argues the U.S. should compensate Third World countries for being economic losers

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If hating America and capitalism qualify someone for government service, then Biden administration EPA nominee Carlton Waterhouse should be confirmed immediately.

Waterhouse, a law professor, is a supporter of a proposal so radical that it is on the fringes of the environmentalist movement: so-called climate reparations.

His perverse idea is that America needs to be punished for having an advanced economy. In the zero-sum world of leftists, America can only have become wealthy because it hurt other countries and made them poor.

“Climate reparations is really just calling for the equitable redress for the harm that has been caused historically. That’s what it’s about—making amends,” Waterhouse said at the American Climate Leadership Summit in August 2020, according to a YouTube video.

“I think climate reparations are essential and an important part of having an equitable climate vision,” he said in the video in which he argues climate reparations should be paid to communities such as Flint, Michigan, whose environmental problems in reality stem from decades of stifling rule by Democrats.

“I think we have to understand that we’re not able to get to an equitable climate solution if we don’t address the inequities in our society. So ultimately, our environment is just one larger part of the social world in which we live.”

“When we think about an equitable climate solution, we’ve got to think about how to equitably deal with this social inequality and injustices that result from our history of gender, race, and class discrimination,” Waterhouse said. “And that kind of reality means that we have to envision a space where those are not present. As long as gender and race and class discrimination define people’s experiences in our society, they will also define their experiences in relationship to the environment. And so that has to be the central part of really moving us forward to address an accurate and equitable climate vision.”

It is important to be sure to be “engaging as allies and as advocates for marginalized communities, for communities of color, for working class, and low income communities. If you’re a part of an organization, or a church, or you’re just an individual who’s concerned about addressing climate change, then it’s important for you to serve as an ally, for those on the ground community-based environmental justice organizations, social-justice organizations that are fighting around issues of environmental justice.”

“As long as the people who are most at risk and most marginalized are neglected, we’ll never really have an equitable climate solution. But if we begin by looking to those who are most threatened, like those in Flint, and in other cities like East Chicago, Indiana, when you look to those communities that are most threatened, most harmed, then you’re going to find solutions that are going to allow everyone to be able to succeed.”

America, of course, is to blame for the world’s problems, according to Waterhouse.

“With regards to climate reparations, I might start off by saying the United States historically is one of the biggest contributors by itself, probably the largest historically of any contributors to climate problems at all, followed by Europe. When you put Europe and the United States together, you’re kind of talking about 90 percent of the contributors to the greenhouse gases that we are now suffering the consequences from. In contrast, the rest of the world combined probably has contributed roughly 10 percent,” he said.

“Marginalized communities within those countries that have gotten the least benefits out of that pollution, are also going to suffer some of the greatest harms from that. And around the world, countries that have had very little if any contribution towards climate change are suffering some of its worst consequences. Climate reparations is really just calling for the equitable redress for the harm that has been caused historically.”

Despite his out-there ideas, Waterhouse’s nomination to be assistant administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may very well be approved by the Senate in the not-too-distant future.

Approval may come even though the identity politics-obsessed Marxist academic’s nomination was rejected on a 10-10 vote on April 7 by the deadlocked Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). Democrats could still find a way to advance the nomination to the Senate floor, despite the key committee’s disapproval.

Waterhouse, who used to work for EPA as an attorney, is a two-time loser: the same committee also failed to advance his nomination for the same position on a 10-10 vote in December.

If confirmed, Waterhouse would be able to wreak havoc on industry as an enviro-mandarin. Until 2015 OLEM was called the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER). OLEM develops guidelines for waste disposal, supports states and localities in redeveloping brownfields, and deals with accidental chemical spills through the Superfund program.

Waterhouse is now a law professor at Howard University School of Law. He was awarded a doctorate in social ethics and a master’s degree in theological studies by Emory University.

“After leaving EPA, I pursued my doctorate in social ethics to learn how to create laws and policies that treated people rightly and promoted justice for all,” Waterhouse said in a statement filed with the committee. “As a law professor, I have focused my research and writing on correcting environmental and other social injustices.”

His Twitter feed, which was unearthed by ranking GOP committee member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), shows Waterhouse is a preening social justice warrior.

“The ugly truth about energy. The ends don’t justify the means,” Waterhouse wrote April 25, 2015, suffixing the #ResistCapitalism hashtag.

“Inexpensive products have a high cost. Workers pay with their happiness, health & their lives,” Waterhouse tweeted May 17, 2015, adding the same hashtag.

Sen. Capito said at the committee meeting on April 7 of this year that she was “troubled by Dr. Waterhouse’s personal views on the energy sector and capitalism.”

“Dr. Waterhouse’s previous statements calling for the U.S. and other developed countries to pay ‘climate reparations’ to the rest of the world has given me pause,” Capito said in her opening statement.

“I believe these viewpoints would impede his ability to carry out the Office of Land and Emergency Management’s duty to impartially consider stakeholder input and would unnecessarily politicize its mission of protecting public health from legacy pollution.”

Now that’s an understatement.

This article by Matthew Vadum appeared June 7, 2022, at FrontPageMag.