Wednesday - April 13, 2011

GOP vs EPA

A guest post by Scott P.

Throughout the early months of 2011, the budget has been a hotly contested issue. With President Obama finally coming to a conclusion on a proposal this week, there are certainly still some issues at hand. One of the most debated aspects of the budget has been the slate of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The criticism and talk over the EPA’s budget has waged on back and forth from business owners and the GOP, to environmental supporters.

The business owners and GOP are right to continue on the barrage against the EPA. It is after all, the EPA regulations and monitoring that ends up costing businesses huge amounts of money and cutting any chance of employment growth. When Barack Obama introduced the original budget proposal at the start of the 2011 year, it called for around a 10 percent cut to the EPA’s budget, with minimal impact on their programs. The GOP used the early months to bring up another proposal that would’ve cut the EPA’s 2010 slate by nearly 30 percent in total. When it was settled this week, there looks to be around a 16 percent cut to the EPA’s budget.

This is certainly better than the 10 percent proposal from the President earlier this year, but there is still work left to do in cutting some of the resources of the EPA that are unneeded. Aside from the proposed EPA budget cuts, the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 was also introduced. Brought on by a group of republican senators in March, this act would serve to put an end to the “Cap and Trade” agenda that the EPA is so notorious for with businesses. With an end to the cap and trade agenda, the EPA’s ability to monitor and regulate greenhouse gas emissions would be lessened. This would give some power back to the businesses and allow for revenue and employment to hopefully prosper once again.

While it looks like the GOP and business have essentially downplayed the role of the EPA as a whole, that isn’t the case. They simply believe that the resources and budget are being used improperly by the environmental agency. They’d rather see more resources go into some of the programs that have direct impact on the health risks associated with the environment. For example, an EPA program such as asbestos removal and preventing health risks like mesothelioma and asbestosis could use some more resources than something like the Clean Air Act, which has certain inefficiencies. Asbestos removal helps keep a number of people safe from these health risks every year, it can sometimes be life saving. For example, these diseases connected to asbestos are very severe and mesothelioma life expectancy[ objectionable link to mesotheliomasymptoms.com removed ] can be as short as a year. Certainly there are a great amount of other programs within the EPA such as this that could stand to use some more of their resources.

Given that the finalized budget was nowhere close to the proposed GOP slate for the EPA, it should be expected that these businesses owners and republicans are far from done trying to help their own revenues and employment. Along with further criticism of the EPA budget, look for more acts to follow that would cut down on costly regulations that are issued out by the environmental agency.

[ Drew: I am all in favor of clean water and air and as little environmental pollution and damage as possible. But you can not bankrupt businesses to get that last little smidgen of purity. “Good enough” is good enough, and anything radically more is pushing diminishing returns out to the asymptote. It’s long past time to find a happy realistic medium level and stick to it, no matter what the particular regulation is. What passed for a clean bill of health in the early 60s in terms of blood lead levels gets you hauled into the hospital today. Things have gone too far.

Remember how that oil sucking ship couldn’t be used during the Gulf Oil Disaster because it only removed 99 7/8% of all the oil? That was pretty stupid. Shutting down 2/3 of our drilling rigs “just in case” because one leaked was just as stupid. Especially while selling leases to the damn Chicoms to slant drill in the same spot any way they felt like, but that’s another rant. Similar regulations exist for the strip coal mining industry, the heavy metals and rare earths mining industry, et cetera. Actually darn near any productive business is just about buried in EPA regulations; it is no coincidence whatsoever that the vast improvements we’ve seen in the air and water quality in the USA started at about the same time our entire industrial base started going oversees. Where the EPA leaves off we have OSHA, throwing in so damn many safety regulations that you nearly need a back brace and a government permit to pick up a pencil in the office. The hippies are in charge of the hen house, to mix several metaphors. And they only take, never give. Not only do we need industry back in our own country to stop bleeding money to foreign nations, we need the jobs that come with it. The far left has had it’s own way virtually unopposed for more than a generation, and it has gone too far. Save paper - wipe your arse with a single sheet of tissue - because trees aren’t a renewable resource! Because if you plant them, they grow. But not instantly, therefore they aren’t renewable!! It’s that far gone.

But of course, the very instant that any Republican even mentions rolling back some of these onerous regulations, and out comes the freak show to yell and scream and protest and beat their bongos and claim how the slightest alleviation will instantly turn the whole earth to burnt poop and that all Republicans are evil earth raping bastards. Hell, they yell all that crap automatically anyway if there’s an R in the White House. It doesn’t matter if any of the accusations are true. Conversely, Obama could burn down the redwoods and salt the Everglades, and it would not make the news or even get a pout from the Sierra Club.

Come to think of it, the standard leftist tantrum is pretty much the same no matter what proposal the Right puts forth. Funny how the media and vast percentages of the population never ever wise up to this tactic, even after having dozens of provably false “disasters” thrown at them, from Global Cooling to Global Warming, Zero Population Growth, and 5 dozen different freak shows about how this food or that one is worse than snorting arsenic. Do parents even read “The boy who cried wolf” to their kids anymore? Does anyone listen?

Create a set of standards that are two steps greener than what passes for acceptable in the rest of the world (find the average between the EU’s super-stringent regs and the Chicoms “we couldn’t give a shit”, then make it 10% stricter. We’ll come out with some mid point, possibly a bit less than we have right now), write those standards down, then disband the EPA. They’ve done their job and now it’s time for them to go.

Lest you think that the EPA still serves a useful function by creating even more rules, recall that it was this bunch that wanted to declare the carbon dioxide you exhale was a harmful pollutant. With fines and limits. Which would empower them to hit you up for five or ten if you were breathing too hard. That’s how you know they’re beyond the bend and have to go.  And we don’t even have to mention Mike Bloomberg and his lunacy, or the Unhappy Meal squad and their whackadoodle efforts, or those loons who live in trees in Berkley and take dumps in plastic bags. Those crazies don’t think the EPA does enough. ]

Posted by Drew458     on 04/13/2011 at 05:19 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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