THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 156, August 15, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
TAXES, DUST, & OYSTERS: FEDS BUSY BUT WRONG
By Dennis T. Avery
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION & ITS PUBLIC POLICY COMMITMENTS IN THE AREA OF ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, & NATURAL
RESOURCES: UNWORKABLE ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES -- HIGH ENERGY TAXES & REDUCTIONS IN
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS -- DEREGISTERING PESTICIDES & ITS IMPACT ON NO-TILL FARMING -- INSTALLING
MANDATORY FARM MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS AROUND THE CHESAPEAKE BAY & ITS IMPACT ON THE HIGH-YIELD
FARMERS IN THE REGION
FULL STORY:
The Obama administration seems deeply committed to policies that can’t work.
The President is demanding hefty energy taxes to “save the planet.” Unfortunately, the proposed reductions in U.S.
greenhouse emissions would have virtually no impact on he earth’s temperatures, even if carbon dioxide is the culprit that
it doesn’t seem to be. A 22 percent correlation between CO2 and our thermometer record isn’t very strong evidence on
which to rake away an annual $900 billion in extra “energy taxes.”
Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency is trying to deregister pesticides to which it has already given a clean
bill of health, to appease the chemophobes on the political and cultural Left. That currently means banning atrazine, a key
ingredient in no-till farming, the most sustainable farming system Americans have ever had. Stanford University says
such high-yield farming has forestalled the plow-down of another 7 million square miles of wildlife habitat, and forestalled
the loss of soil carbon equal to one-third of the world’s industrial emissions since 1850!
EPA is also proposing to clamp down on farm dust. It may be news to EPA, but a lot of farming activities necessarily raise
dust. Should we sprinkle water over the harrows and no-till planters, over the grain augers, over the lime application
trucks, and the farm pickups driving down unpaved roads? That would be hugely expensive and time-consuming, not to
mention taking scarce water away from the crops and cities.
My favorite Obama dead end is the Chesapeake Bay project. Over the past 30 years, we’ve spent billions of federal
dollars trying to reduce the nitrogen and other nutrients that get into the Chesapeake Bay, with absolutely no impact on
the murky water. The Obama strategy is to double down, as they did with their British-style “health care reform,” which
has failed everywhere, including Britain. But, as the British decentralize their medical decisions to 50,000 doctors, the EPA
will now install mandatory farm management requirements around the Bay.
When the Chesapeake Bay was healthy, the water stayed clear because it was constantly filtered by the Bay’s huge
oyster population. The oyster-cleared water fostered more eel grass on the bottom to shelter baby crabs and fish. The
oysters and eel-grass also broke down huge tonnages of nitrogen and other nutrients naturally. Then the oyster
population collapsed.
The logical key to a clean bay is restoring the oysters. Until recently, we just didn’t know how. We may now have that
capability.
The new strategy has little to do with farming and nitrogen. The Corps of Engineers has produced a rapidly expanding
oyster population in the Great Wicomico River by rebuilding the high shell reefs (12–16 inches) typical of the natural
Bay. These high shell reefs kept the oysters up off the river bottom, above the sediment, and in strong enough currents
that the viruses now ravaging the Bay mollusks had far less impact. The Great Wicomico now has 185 million thriving
oysters, about as many as all the waters of Maryland!
This success strongly suggests that oyster dredging caused the Bay shellfish collapse, especially the power dredging
allowed since World War II. Restoration would mean building high shell reefs in many of the key streams, and
protecting them from harvest until they’ve had a chance to expand the high shell reefs and reseed the bay with spat.
We’ll also need a new, cost-effective way to harvest the oysters, without going back to the laborious hand-tonging.
Does that mean vacuum tubes, handled by scuba divers? This line of approach certainly looks more productive than
the Obama call to shut down the Bay region’s high-yield farmers.
Insanity is continuing to do what you’ve been doing, and expecting a different result.
SOURCES:
Jacqueline Sit, “EPA to Crack Down on Farm Dust; News9.com, July 30, 2010
D. Schulte, R. Burke, R. Lipclus; “Unprecedented Restoration of a Native Oyster Metapopulation,” Science, 28
August, 2009.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Health & Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production & Consumption
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
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable
Global Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. Readers may write him at P.O. Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421 or
send him email at cgfi@hughes.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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