THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 55, April 18, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE EPA MONSTER
By Alan Caruba
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY SEEKING THE POWER OF TOTAL REGULATORY CONTROL OVER INDIVIDUAL
ACTIVITIES & THE AMERICAN ECONOMY: WHAT HAPPENS IF THE EPA GAINS THE AUTHORITY TO REGULATE &
RESTRICT CO2 EMISSIONS INTO THE ATMOSPHERE -- THE IMPACT OF EXERCISE OF SUCH REGULATORY POWER ON HUMAN
HEALTH & ON ECONOMIC GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT -- THE EPA'S EFFORTS AT ENVIRONMENTALIST POLITICAL
INDOCTRINATION IN THE SCHOOLS
FULL STORY:
Among the legacies of Richard M. Nixon, famed for the Watergate scandal that forced his resignation, it should be noted
that he created the Environmental Protection Agency. There was no vote in Congress. He did it with an executive order.
Today the EPA has an annual budget of $9 billion and some 18,000 employees.
Not satisfied with the authorized powers given it to ensure clean air and water, the EPA has never ceased to seek expanded
powers, culminating soon with a battle over whether it can regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) as a “pollutant.” Labeled a
“greenhouse gas,” in the eyes of the EPA, CO2 is an “endangerment” to the health of humanity in general and Americans
in particular.
CO2 is as vital to all life on planet Earth in the same way as oxygen is. CO2 is what plants consume in order to grow, much
as oxygen is essential for life among living creatures that, in turn, are dependent on vegetation, crops, for their sustenance.
It’s a neat little cycle that has existed since life emerged on Earth.
If the EPA gains the power to regulate CO2, it will have the power to regulate the activities of every individual and the
entire economy of the nation. Traditional sources of energy, with the exception of nuclear and hydroelectric power, involve
the emission of CO2. A modern society cannot function without CO2 emissions, but they have nothing to do with global
warming because there is NO global warming.
CO2 represents a mere 386 parts per million of the Earth’s atmosphere. Humans are responsible for 3% of its generation;
Mother Nature produces the other 97%. And the EPA wants to regulate ALL of it!
Actual science is of no importance to the EPA. If the EPA really cared about human life, it would not have a long history
of banning beneficial chemicals such as DDT and other pesticides that protect humans against a laundry list of
transmittable diseases like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, et cetera.
The EPA is actually seeking to limit the amount of deicing fluid used to protect commercial and other aircraft, seeking to
do so on the grounds that deicing fluid might get into nearby streams and rivers. Never mind the lives of the passengers
and crews on planes that would be brought down as the result of ice. This defies common sense.
In truth, the EPA threatens the economy and our lives in so many ways it is difficult to know where to point first. To my
mind, the way it infiltrates the nation’s education system to fill the minds of children with visions of a planet threatened
with “warming” or that every species is “endangered” or that all the waters and air are “polluted” is criminal.
The EPA is currently accepting grant applications “to help manage the National Environmental Education Training
Program over the next ten years.” Costing $10 million, it “will provide teachers and other education professionals with
resources and support to enable them to teach about environmental issues more effectively.” The EPA was not created
to go into our nation’s schools in this manner. This is political propaganda. This is political indoctrination.
Let us grant that, when it stuck to its original purpose, the EPA did make the air and some of the nation’s waters cleaner.
Now, however, the EPA is a massive machine designed to destroy the nation’s economy and impede growth and
development in every way possible.
The primary tool for this are lies concerning any element of the environment it wants to control and, as a result, retard
the economy. As an example, there are the new “smog” standards the EPA recently announced. It has reduced them to
a level of 60 to 70 parts per billion in the air. It released a list of counties it says are in violation of the new limits.
The cost of achieving the lower smog level is estimated from $19 billion to $90 billion. If you took one tennis ball from an
olympic-sized pool filled with tennis balls, you would achieve the same result. It’s not merely absurd; it is yet another
attack on every single business and industry operating in the counties affected.
The same idiocy applies to setting mileage rules or requiring that ethanol be added to gasoline. To achieve the mileage
rules, the weight of automobiles must be reduced. People inside those thinner, lighter cars will die from auto accidents at
a rate in excess of larger vehicles. As for ethanol, it requires more energy to produce than it saves. It drives up the cost
of all the food we consume. It also reduces the mileage from every gallon of gasoline, while emitting more CO2!
The EPA is currently at war with the coal industry, which is responsible for providing the source of 50% of all the
electricity generated in the United States of America. A recent “endangerment” finding against all surface coal mining in
the Appalachian states of Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia is based on the protection of the Mayfly population,
an insect that typically lives for one day!
The list of EPA abuses of common sense and known science could fill a shelf of books in much the same way its
ever-expanding regulations do, but the worst of it is yet to come if the Cap-and-Trade Act is passed.
Despite the fact that CO2 has nothing to do with the non-existent “global warming” and therefore does not need to be
regulated for any reason, the enactment of the bill will literally prevent a homeowner from selling their home without
permission from an EPA administrator. The cost of buying or selling a home will soar.
The Environmental Protection Agency needs to be reduced in size and authority to its original intent. Better still,
eliminate it entirely. It is a monster.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, commentator and business and science writer,
he is the Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" designed to influence
public opinion and policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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