THE EPA IS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION

 

Gather any group of people together to solve a problem and the first step is to define the problem. This is followed by group interaction and debate as to possible solutions. If the problem is complex enough the group will usually decide on the most promising of the possible solutions and detail someone to research the viability. If the answer is deemed practical the group can then plan the implementation. Every business person, doctor, engineer, scientist, law enforcement and military officer knows how to use this process to solve problems. Some of us spend our working lives applying our skills, training and experience to finding solutions while others spend their time and the legal system in perpetual opposition to us. In small group dynamics you must offer credible solutions to be taken seriously in a discussion about any problem. Our complex regulatory environment and legal system have made it possible for people with no credible solutions to block farmers from getting water for their crops, loggers from cutting trees, steel mills from producing steel, power plants from burning coal or splitting atoms and many other functions necessary for today’s way of life.

We have shown the world how to make most of the things in a modern society. We became the world’s leading economy by converting natural resources into finished goods and exporting them to the rest of the globe.  Something happened a few years back that gave the power to control our industrial might over to those who oppose all industry. The federal government created a department of environmental quality and gave it sweeping regulatory authority. If the goal of the agency is “protecting the environment” there is virtually no argument that can be made against any of their regulations without the media branding one as wanting to destroy the planet. Today we can see the battles raging in the headlines about hydraulic fracking in the oil industry. Ask any person on the street and you are likely to hear how terrible fracking is for the environment, Hollywood makes movies about it and vilifies the companies it portrays as greed driven monsters destroying the world. Pick your favorite Hollywood celebrity they all seem to speak out on some issue without being required to offer either a shred of proof or a credible alternative. These same people live large lives full of multiple giant air-conditioned homes with heated chlorine filled pools and zip around the world on private jets. Setting their hypocrisy aside we need as a country to come together like a small group and demand that they propose workable solutions or get out of the way of those of us who are. It is a fact that we are, as a country,  unwilling to give up our personal transportation, let any legislative body outlaw cars and see what happens in the next election. The engineer in me says that given the number of miles Americans drive their cars we need to find the best way to power them. The shallow answer from the left is to promote clean electric cars as if they were a viable answer. The environmental zealots act as if the electricity just magically appears and that no fossil fuel was burned to make it. The reality is that over 80% of our electric power comes from coal or natural gas burning power plants. The environmentalists don’t like the hydroelectric or nuclear generating options either as they promote wind and solar. Vast amounts of public tax dollars have been wasted on wind and solar projects that today supply less that 2% of our needs and any engineer in the field who does not rely on government grants will tell you there is no viable answer there.

 It is difficult enough to find real solutions for today’s problems and fund their development without also fighting an endless battle against the perpetual opposition and their army of attorneys. I’m in one of the professions that require viable solutions if you are going to be successful however transportation is not one of my areas of experience. I ask friends in the auto industry where the answer lies and without hesitation they say hydrogen. My question is then why are we not funding more development in that direction and again the answer is invariably because some idiots blew up an airship and poisoned the public’s attitude about hydrogen power and safety.

This country is littered with the dead carcasses of industries left behind in the wake of irresponsible actions by those wielding the environmental protection act as a weapon. It is time that America demands more from activists than just opposition and law suits. Propose something that is really better or shut up and let us do it.