The events of the last two weeks have been described by Jon Stewart as 'purposeful, vindictive chaos,' and this new GOP bill is no exception to this. Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

This is not a drill – a bill has been drafted to “completely abolish” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Penned by freshman GOP lawmaker Matt Gaetz of Florida, the bill will aim to entirely dismantle the EPA – the organization responsible for mitigating against pollution, dangerous climate change, and the destruction of America’s public land – before the end of 2018.

Although it is currently being written up and has not even reached the House of Representatives, an email obtained by the Huffington Post reveals that Gaetz is looking for co-sponsors for the bill. In it, he claims that “the American people are drowning in rules and regulations promulgated by unelected bureaucrats, and the Environmental Protection Agency has become an extraordinary offender.”

Claiming that small businesses cannot keep up with the apparently overzealous regulations on environmental conservation conjured up by the EPA, he then asks his potential supporters: “I ask for your support in eliminating this abusive and costly agency.”

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To say this is deeply distressing is something of an understatement. If there is an issue with small businesses genuinely suffering under too much regulation, then a debate should be had about how the environment can still be protected while small business owners can be helped out in this manner. Just throwing all toys out of the pram and doing away with the entire agency is profoundly ludicrous.

Of course, even if this bill finds its co-sponsors, it might not be passed by Congress. After all, there are plenty of bills waiting for ratification that are just too bizarre even for the most die-hard of conservatives. Take the so-called “American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017”, for example, which aims to pull the US out of the UN – this will never happen, not even under Trump.

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However, it has to be noted that both the White House and Congress are completely controlled by the Republican Party, the number one enemy to environmental preservation and the world’s greatest peddler of climate change denial. You’d be hard pressed to find GOP lawmakers that do not receive hefty donations from fossil fuel industries and not coincidentally disparage the EPA.