Let us conduct an overview just of what we have only recently learned about the unconstitutional, overreaching and abusive Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Let us begin with Flint, Michigan – where toxic levels of lead were found to have been in the water for over a year.
Flint Was Not the First: A Look at the History of the EPA & Why We Should Have Predicted Flint: “(Virginia Tech professor Marc) Edwards…opened the case much wider, referring to disasters from nearly a decade ago in which the EPA engaged in willful negligence. He pointed specifically to the crisis in Washington, D.C. in 2004 in which the water conditions were drastically worse than that in Flint.
Wait – what about Washington, D.C.?
Health Impact Of DC Water 20-30 Times Worse Than Flint: “District of Columbia residents were exposed to higher levels of lead-tainted drinking water for a longer period of time than the Flint residents….”
That’s pretty terrible. And the EPA apparently blew it. How did they handle Flint?
EPA Memo: Officials Didn’t ‘Want To Go Out On A Limb’ For Flint: “…as it became apparent the city’s water supply had been contaminated with high levels of lead, according to an internal agency memo revealed at a Tuesday congressional hearing.”
EPA Stayed Silent on Flint’s Tainted Water: “An EPA water expert, Miguel Del Toral, identified potential problems with Flint’s drinking water in February, confirmed the suspicions in April and summarized the looming problem in a June internal memo….”
Newly-Released Email Details Complicity of Obama’s EPA in Flint Poisoning: “In an effort to dissuade him from pursuing the issue, (EPA Section Chief of Ground Water and Drinking Water Rita) Bair questioned Del Toral’s assertion that high lead levels were pervasive throughout the city….His superiors at the EPA quashed Del Toral’s interim report.”
How very competent and transparent of them.
And when the EPA isn’t ignoring problems – it’s creating them. And, again, lying their faces off.
EPA’s Gold King Mine Blowout Was No Accident: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intentionally opened up the abandoned mine, which unleashed 3 million gallons of toxic waste into nearby rivers that residents of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and the Navajo Nation depend upon for drinking water.”
Here Are EPA’s Mistakes That Poisoned Western Rivers: “Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials missed key signs its intentional breach of Colorado’s Gold King Mine would cause a major blowout….”
EPA’s Gold King Mine Explanations Leave Gaping Holes: “(T)he agency has given shifting accounts of how three million gallons of mine waste was spilled into drinking water for three states and the Navajo Nation.”
The EPA — Caught Red-Handed Again: “An EPA official was caught red-handed with full knowledge of the danger of an environmental spill at Colorado’s Gold King Mine in emails discovered by the Denver Post, but the agency downplayed any knowledge of the hazard to the public.”
EPA Chief Says There Was No ‘Negligence’ In The Gold King Mine Blowout: “Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy (said)…’We looked for and received an independent investigation by the Department of the Interior.’”
Independent, you say?
EPA Advisor Wrote ‘Independent’ Review Of Gold King Mine Spill: “(T)he report omitted critical details, possibly due to conflicts of interest. The Department of Interior was involved with numerous aspects of the work going on at Gold King Mine before and after the spill, and the mine engineering expert tasked with reviewing the department’s report had serious misgivings about the integrity of the investigation.”
Gold King Mine Investigators Secretly Ordered To ‘Stay Clear’ Of EPA’s Negligence: “‘The actual cause of failure is some combination of issues related to EPA internal communications, administrative authorities, and/or a break in the decision path,’ Richard Olsen, the Army Corps of Engineers official who peer reviewed the resulting report, wrote in an email. But (Olsen) was ordered to avoid such aspects in their investigation.”
More EPA competence and transparency.
So when the agency, for instance, goes on a regulatory jihad against the private sector in the name of “Global Warming” and/or “Climate Change” – you are certainly correct to question their intentions. And their motives.
EPA Chief: Climate Regs Meant To Show ‘Leadership’, Not Fight Global Warming: “‘I don’t understand,’ (Virginia Republican Congressman David) McKinley said in a Tuesday hearing. ‘If it doesn’t have an impact on climate change around the world, why are we subjecting our hard working taxpayers and men and women in the coal fields to something that has no benefit?’ ‘We see it as having had enormous benefit in showing sort of domestic leadership as well as garnering support around the country for the agreement we reached in Paris,’ McCarthy responded.”
Oh – that’s certainly worth trillions of dollars taken out of the economy.
And when the EPA says they are interested in protecting air and water – you are right to question that too. Especially if you are a farmer – and you like using your land to, you know, farm.
The EPA’s Lawless Land Grab: “Today there is no greater threat to the rule of law and the right to the peaceful enjoyment of property than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the course of prosecuting its ostensible mission to clean the air and the water.”
The EPA is Turning Water on Farms Into a Weapon Against Farmers: “The issue is the EPA’s proposed changes to the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation. In March, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed new rules that would expand the agency’s regulatory authority on streams and wetlands that feed into major rivers and lakes.”
The EPA’s Troubled Waters: “It claims jurisdiction over drainage ditches, farmland, and even backyards.
The EPA wants to regulate bodies of water all the way down to rain puddles – so as to render nigh useless the lands on which any water collects.
The EPA has repeatedly demonstrated they have manifest, all-encompassing, totalitarian objectives. That they are completely dishonest in the ways they go about imposing them. And that they have zero practical knowledge or skill in any of the many areas over which they seek to lord.
So when farmers, or miners, or anyone else actually involved in these areas register complaints about the EPA – perhaps we should take their perspective a little more seriously than that of the Green Leviathan.
And when the nation’s producers actually have a reasonable request of government – government should actually serve, rather than overrule.
To wit: Farmers want freer trade of their goods. Less government here – in exchange for less government from nations all over the world. Which helps them – and has the ancillary benefit of making food much cheaper, which helps all of us.
Government should get to it. As a part of being in its new full-time business – of getting out of our way.
Which means the EPA – the perma-impediment – should be added to to the ash heap of history.
This first appeared in Red State.