USEPA Administrator Lisa Jackson delivered a speech on Tuesday, marking the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Clean Air Act. It was a remarkably honest bit of oratory in which the administrator quite accurately recounted how much progress we have made in cleaning up the air we breathe. Yet, Jackson’s honesty was also disturbing, as she outlined an ominous future featuring an ever more aggressive and demanding EPA that sees little need to worry about the concerns of industry.
The administrator noted that “as air pollution has dropped over the last 40 years, our national GDP has risen by 207 per cent.” When anyone involved in the environmental industry recognizes that we have in fact made progress in the field, it’s a rare occasion indeed. The fact is that air quality has improved enormously in the United States over the past four decades, so it would have been better if Jackson could have pointed the stunning magnitude of our success. Still, the fact that Jackson acknowledged progress at all stands among from the litany of “sky is falling” homilies that environmental advocates deliver on an almost daily basis. Unfortunately, that was the highpoint of the administrator’s speech. After that grudging admission, it was downhill from there.
For most of us on the industrial side, the remarkable thing about America’s environmental record is that we have managed to grow the GDP by 207 per cent over the last forty years, in spite of the Clean Air Act, a myriad of other environmental regulations and growing, ever more onerous sets of requirements. To Lisa Jackson however, that economic growth occurred because of environmental regulation. Claiming that the Clean Air Act has saved America trillions of dollars, Jackson called the Clean Air Act “one of the most cost-effective things that the American people have done for themselves over the last half century” and asserted that it is “one of the most economically successful programs in American history.”
The EPA creates enormous, theoretical cost-benefits by claiming that its rules result in less lost days of work and therefore greater productivity, along with reduced healthcare expenses. There is no auditing body similar to the Congressional Budget Office to challenge such spurious claims. As a result, the Agency says that virtually every environmental regulation it proposes won’t cost a dime, but will rather save untold amounts of money. Such purported “savings” have been double, triple and quadruple counted, even as health care costs continue to skyrocket and the percentage of worker sick days has hardly changed. If Jackson’s claims were true, if onerous environmental regulations actually created wealth instead of sapping it, there could never have been a recession and our healthcare system would have fallen into disuse for a lack of patients.
American industry has adapted to the massive regulatory structure that grew out of the Clean Air Act, but no one should be so foolish as to believe that it, along with all of the rest of us, has not paid an enormous price. For example, no oil refinery has been built on United States soil since 1975 as a direct result of the regulatory structure. Rules that were intended to incentivize the best in new technologies have done quite the opposite, thanks to self-serving manipulation by environmental groups and the EPA’s acquiescence. Refiners and other industry segments learned that it made more sense to keep old plants limping along because that was a lot easier than trying to build cleaner modern facilities in the teeth of environmental group and Agency opposition. Spiraling environmental and labor costs drove large portions of some industrial sectors, like iron and steel production and the printing industry, overseas and across the border.
We have made great stides in keeping the environment clean and yet the US is harassed about the environment, as though we are the biggest polluters on the planet. Where are the outcrys from the wackos about China, India, ….etc. Its like these countries are in a contest to see which one can destroy its environment first.
I work for a big corporation and we take care of our waste and comply with EPA regs, but the author is right, fill out a form wrong and you are in trouble mister.
I am getting to the point where everytime I hear the word SUSTAINABILITY – I know the next sentence is something that's going to screw with my quality of life and standard of living and cost me money.
Almost four decades ago, Ayn Rand predicted that leftist environmentalists would seek to justify all-encompassing regulations, as George Will accurately describes in http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/200… She wrote in her essay “The Anti-Industrial Revolution”: “The immediate goal is obvious: the destruction of the remnants of capitalism in today’s mixed economy, and the establishment of a global dictatorship. This goal does not have to be inferred —- many speeches and books on the subject state explicitly that the ecological crusade is a means to that end.” (From “Return of the Primitive”)
All she was talking about was the state and national park systems – you want to sell them off to private Capitalism? Guess what would happen. Ayn Rand was totally for any Abortion/Murder anyone could think of – if she was willing to murder little babies to give women more personal freedom (choices) at the cost of removing any possibility of choice from so many innocent victims – people denied any right of even free-speech, or any freedom what so ever, even the freedom to brush the garbage dump flies away from their eyes as they are denied even the dignity of burial and thrown into the city dumps! Well ! If the tree is rotten make the fruit rotten too! She is as close to an evil witch as one can get!
I really have limited patience with stupid people who spout ad hominem regurgitated leftist nonsense, I will ask you the following questions. Does the right to life imply that a woman's is her own? Obviously yes. Does that mean that a woman has the right to terminate a pregancy? Conditionally, yes, but not unconditionally. Killing inself defence is moral. Is choosing abortion a bad choice for reasons other than real medical, incest, or rape. It seems that studies indicate that it is personally for most women and culturally bad for society. By the way, there are bewteen 4 and 5 times as many abortions performed in Communist and socialist countries as in the USA and Canada. And in Communist China with its one child rule, abortions are in the tens of millions.
Ayn Rand explicity defined and proved that Capitalism is the only ethical system in history, because it is the only system based on individual rights where men deal with each other for mutual benefit by mutual consent and the government acts only as a policemen to protect people from violations of their individual rights, and to enforce contracts in commerce.
Ayn Rand isn't anything, she's dead. Where does she deny freedom? Actually, she made sense. The best thing that ever happened was "greed." I don't have to completely agree with someone to support them. As far as I am concerned, abortion, call it murder if you want, is a state issue. All the more so, if it is considered murder.
Ayn Rand isn't anything, she's dead. (I HAVE NO IDEA WHY YOU ARE HERE POINTING OUT THE OBVIOUS TO ME)Where does she deny freedom? (WHEN A PERSON IS DEAD THEY CAN'T EVEN BRUSH THE FLIES AWAY FROM THEIR EYES CAN THEY?)Actually, she made sense. The best thing that ever happened was "greed."( HOW CAN YOU SAY SUCH A FANTASTICAL THING AND NOT EXPLAIN IT?) I don't have to completely agree with someone to support them. As far as I am concerned, abortion, call it murder if you want, is a state issue. All the more so, if it is considered murder. ( I HAVE NOT DEAD OF WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO SAY HERE – "WE SHOULD NOT BE CONCERNED CITIZENS CONTRIBUTING TO JUSTICE?) PLEASE SAY SOMETHING THAT MAKES SOME KIND OF SENSE.
I can and will say what I please. If you can just understand. Have I lost you yet? Because murder is a state issue, the federal government has no authority to regulate it. Concerned citizen my culo. The only thing you are concerned about is your self righteous agenda. Where do you get this fly and garbage dump thing anyway. It is you, who needs to explain.
murder is a problem for all humans everywhere – we strongly disapprove of it. That is the only reason civilization exists. IN a democracy, unlike a totalitarian state, we do not leave it up to the King, ultimately it must be in our hands – start thinking like us. As for the fly that crawls around your eyes, well, you are free to brush them away. Not so for the babies that are murdered in cold blood and thrown into fly infested dumps (those that are not made into medicines and injected into rich people) – those babies have been cheated out of their right to brush the flies out of their eye – murder always robs human of all their freedoms, even the simple ones, like being able to brush away the fly that eats your eye. Abortion is the most chicken sh*t form of murder that ever existed!
Great book, I own it. The section on education, "Comprachinos of the Mind," I think, was intriguing..
Oh henryCrux, you have drunk deeply of the Koolaid! Yes, the environment today is cleaner than it was, and I'm talking a very few select locations, 40 years ago. I contend industry, despite it's faults, would have cleaned itself up in about the same amount of time. I trust the free society to police itself through pressure on those corporations that hurt the society in the long run. That said, environmental wackos have taken over the business of thoughtful solutions to problems and demanded, pretty much, a full stop to industrialized society and our way of life. It's like the people who opted out in the 60s and 70s to go and live on communes are now in power and they will force us all to live on communes whether we like it or not. The problem is, all those communes failed! Don't be a fool! You might have to do without but, the powers will never do without. Algore will have a huge diesel generator out back of every house he owns 'cause even he knows wind and solar can't be trusted. Global cooling morphed to global warming which morphed to climate change which has now morphed to global climate disruption. If it's true you don't have to change the name.
The environmental wackos are victims of their own success. Nobody is in favor of dirty air or water, and they have been remarkably cleaned up. Now the only way that environmentalists can continue to get funding is to make things up like global warming, er climate change, er climate disruption, yeah that's the ticket.
Very good Tom! You are absolutely right. The environuts had a leg to stand on when one couldn't breathe, bathe or see in some areas (yeah, it was that bad sometimes) but, that's been looked after, in North America at least. Quite quickly I might add and before the EPA became more like the IRS, if you know what I mean. Now, like you say, they have to make stuff up to maintain relevence. CO2? Give me a break! It's plant food and levels have been much higher. Warming? Seriously, who could be against the earth getting a few degrees warmer? After all, food crops growing north of the artic circle can't be all that bad. Again, it's been warmer before and we're still here! Yep, it's just to justify their existence, nothing more.
"Environmentalists" wanted to save the bald eagle by banning DDT, although there was scant evidence that the eagles were actually being harmed. As a result of banning DDT 43,000,000 people have died of malaria.
I'm sure you consider this a small price to pay for the smug satisfaction of "saving" the "environment".
I've heard that said (DDT doesn't make birds lay shell-less eggs – but I have seen it with my own eyes. But, I could be wrong even so – Hell ! Anyone can be wrong about anything – but, even so one should not take chances with ones ultimate survival, and life is hard enough without unnecessary poisons dogging your children's lives. Pardon me if I don't believe 43,000, 000 people died because it was used less – but it sounds nutty to me.
So you go out and look at bird egg? You might want to learn how to speak English, because I smell a foreigner here.
I join this act for saving our Mother Earth. Since this is the only planet we're going to live, let's just all act together in helping save the Earth and stop polluting and destroying our environment.
Another sanctimonious untermenchen heard from. No thanks, I'll pass on that lie. While you're at, I've got an act you can perform.
The same environ-wackos have murdered 175 million Afrikans because of their non-scientific ban on DDT. Even though they would spray at a 10% solution of that in the US and Europe so they could pronounce control. It seems their agenda has nothing to do with the environment. But Malaria still kills more in Africa then AIDS. So much for their humanity. But Marxism (Theocratic secular religion) was never about people, it was all about power in the hands of a few, to control many. (And the ones they can't control are just blood sacrifice to the state – got to get the masses to a pure state))
COYOTE, Ayn Rand isn't anything, she's dead. (I HAVE NO IDEA WHY YOU ARE HERE POINTING OUT THE OBVIOUS TO ME)Where does she deny freedom? (WHEN A PERSON IS DEAD THEY CAN'T EVEN BRUSH THE FLIES AWAY FROM THEIR EYES CAN THEY?)Actually, she made sense. The best thing that ever happened was "greed."( HOW CAN YOU SAY SUCH A FANTASTICAL THING AND NOT EXPLAIN IT?) I don't have to completely agree with someone to support them. As far as I am concerned, abortion, call it murder if you want, is a state issue. All the more so, if it is considered murder. ( I HAVE NOT UNDERSTOOD WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO SAY HERE – "WE SHOULD NOT BE CONCERNED CITIZENS CONTRIBUTING TO JUSTICE?) PLEASE SAY SOMETHING THAT MAKES SOME KIND OF SENSE.
Coyote! Listen up! Murder is a problem for all humans everywhere – we strongly disapprove of it. That is the only reason civilization exists. IN a democracy, unlike a totalitarian state, we do not leave it up to the King, ultimately it must be in our hands – start thinking like us. As for the fly that crawls around your eyes, well, you are free to brush them away. Not so for the babies that are murdered in cold blood and thrown into fly infested dumps (those that are not made into medicines and injected into rich people) – those babies have been cheated out of their right to brush the flies out of their eye – murder always robs human of all their freedoms, even the simple ones, like being able to brush away the fly that eats your eye. Abortion is the most chicken sh*t form of murder that ever existed!