THE ENDANGERED CAPITALIST ACT

 

The 1973 endangered species act came to us cloaked in the most misleading terms while pretending to protect the poor unfortunate animals that have no defense against our industrial society. Since the law’s passage the Environmental Protection Agency has listed about 40% of the species on earth as threatened or endangered. This equals 800,000 species that can be used to bring law suits against businesses going about their lawful business. Various environmental groups have used the act as a lever and a listed species for a fulcrum to force businesses such as farmers and timber companies to scale back or stop using their own private property all together. A relatively new tactic that is being used is for these environmental groups to sue the EPA where like minded bureaucrats settle the suit by agreeing to impose restrictions on private property use and businesses. This tactic excludes the effected businesses from being represented in the courtroom where their rights are being infringed. The latest example, in a long list, is the settlement of a suit which has placed the lesser prairie chicken on the EPA’s threatened species list. The five states where this bird lives just happen to be where much of the new oil exploration and fracking are being done. Isn’t it just a miraculous coincidence that researchers have found that fear of tall objects, like drilling rigs, where hawks might hide is a major contributor to the reduction in numbers of this bird. The perpetual anti-everything crowd don’t care whose rights they trample or what businesses get destroyed as long as their vision of saving the planet is fulfilled. I lived through the trauma of having my industry destroyed by environmental zealots who used scientific studies, which were eventually proven to be false, to inflict their will on tens of thousands of innocent people. Logging was identified as the culprit in the decline of the Northern Spotted Owl and based on the “science” vast tracts of public and private lands were set aside for owl habitat. Too late to save the industry and the jobs it supported the truth came out that an invasive species of owl was preying on the smaller spotted owl causing its demise. The logging eventually returned but this happened long after the jobs and family livelihoods were destroyed.

I find that my first reaction to any self proclaimed environmentalist citing a scientific study is distrust. The track record of “scientific environmental studies” is so poor that if it were not for liberal bureaucrats desire to control private business the studies would be discredited for the shams that they are. One quick clue about the veracity of the prairie chicken study is the finding that oil derricks and transmission lines are bad while no negative effects were found from wind farms. The environmentalists wouldn’t want to cast their favorite alternative power source in a negative light.

I submit that the environmental zealot’s use of butterflies, owls, toads, snowy plovers, and all the rest have little or nothing to do with the animals and everything to do with opposing capitalism and the use of natural resources by industry. It is a sad commentary on our litigating society that such a fraudulent practice is being used to destroy so many livelihoods.

The protection of the environment is by law an authority granted to the individual States. More precisely it is an authority prohibited to the Federal Government by the Constitution. The decisions restricting lawful business practices in Kansas should not be made by representatives elected in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The framers of the Constitution had it right when they limited the role of the Federal Government in our lives. The mind of the progressive politician just refuses to accept the idea that other citizens have rights which are not subject to Federal Government control.