 3 Aug
11 - The problem with the Environmental Protection Agency is that it has
“protected” the nation into a place where corporations flee to other nations,
exporting jobs no longer available here. When not doing that, it is destroying
the ability of whole industries—particularly energy—and of our agricultural
dynamo to function.
In late July, the Sacramento Bee reported that “There are fewer undocumented
immigrants in California—and the Sacramento region—because many are now finding
the American dream south of the border.” While America struggles
to survive its regulatory juggernaut, “Mexico’s unemployment
rate is now 4.9 percent, compared with 9.4 percent joblessness
in the United States.”
What’s wrong with that equation? Everything!
Putting aside the debate over debt and wasteful spending, at the heart of the
economic stagnation that has been occurring is the Environmental Protection
Agency. It is an agency of pure malice and a place that arrogantly cites bogus
health statistics while issuing rules and regulations that are strangling the
economy.
James Hammerton of
Freedom Works recently noted that “The EPA is in the process of completing
and finalizing 30 major regulations and 170 major policy rules that would impose
hundreds of billions of dollars of compliance costs on the economy.” Only
Congress can stop this.
Long after the global warming hoax was exposed, the EPA continues to insist that
carbon dioxide, a gas vital to all life on Earth, has to be regulated. Even
after the administration’s failed effort to get Cap-and-Trade legislation
passed, the EPA relentlessly pursues this policy.
In brief, the claim is that carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is causing
global warming. Therefore it must be reduced. Who produces CO2? Everyone! Humans
exhale about six pounds of it a day. Every kind of energy use for manufacturing,
for transportation, for the production of electricity, all this and more
generates CO2 emissions. All this and more represent the core elements of our
economy.
Why would you want to “trade” CO2? Well, by selling and trading “carbon
credits”, millions of dollars can be made by the exchanges set up for that
purpose. Utilities and manufacturing facilities would all have to buy the
credits in order to stay in business. The whole global warming hoax was devoted
to this scheme and, of course, those advocating it were all going to get
obscenely wealthy while the cost of everything increased for the rest of us.
The problem for the EPA is that the
Chicago exchange set up to trade carbon credits has long since closed its
doors after revelations in November 2009 that a handful of climate modeling
scientists had rigged the models to show a warming trend when, in fact, the
planet had entered a cooling cycle in 1998!
Sensing that its ability to destroy the economy is slipping away, the EPA has
been readying regulations allegedly based on the nation’s air quality. The
problem they face is that the air over the U.S. is as clean as it has ever been.
With the exception of places like Los Angeles, air quality has never been
better. The EPA is literally trying to regulate dust that drifts in from Africa
or airborne soot that arrives from Pacific volcanoes.
Regarding its proposed Ozone rules, John Engler, the president of the Business
Roundtable, noted that “There’s nothing reasonable or balanced about the
Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to tighten national air-quality
standards for ozone emissions at this time. For one thing, it’s premature,
coming a full two years before the EPA is scheduled to complete its own
scientific study of ozone emissions in 2013.” Not surprisingly, 2013 is likely
to be the year that the U.S. has a new president and a Congress made up
primarily of politicians devoted to debt reduction and the elimination of waste.
There is not enough time, nor space to describe how crazed the EPA is, but let
me share just one example. The EPA recently told New York City that it will have
to build a $1.6 billion-plus cover of a reservoir to prevent contamination of
cryptosporidium, a water-born pathogen that causes diarrhea, from getting into
its water system.
As the Wall Street Journal noted, “There’s one problem. The pathogen hasn’t been
found in the reservoir despite years of tests and is barely present in the
city.” Never mind, the EPA is claiming that the cover would “prevent between
112,000 and 365,000 cases annually”!
It gets worse, “New York City has already spent nearly $15 billion since 2002
for federally-mandated water projects, with the feds chipping in less than 1% of
the costs. Next year it will finish building a $1.6 billion ultraviolet
facility—the largest in the world—to disinfect water even more than it already
does.”
That is just a snapshot of the billions in costs the EPA is right now trying to
impose on a nation that is already $14 trillion in debt.
Here’s a suggestion. Close down the EPA entirely. Let the States determine what
should be done regarding their air, water, and other environmental standards.
The nation could save itself trillions by just ridding itself of the crazies
running the EPA.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/08/epa-nation-killing-machine.html
|
|