EPA Budget and Power Under Attack from Republicans

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Cancer rates recently have been reversed as we understand most of these industrial diseases are environmentally caused.
The EPA and environmental regulations are cheap compared to the costs of the delayed health costs. The US government offers single payer universal healthcare in Libby Montana because of the horrible asbestos poisoning of a whole town from unregulated mining and a greedy corporation avoiding responsibility.
All these attacks on regulations are fake arguments perpetrated by special interests who want to profit at the expense of Americans' health so taxpayers, employers and everyone will end up picking up the tab for epidemics like cancer and diabetes.
The Deregulation Agenda is a greedy gimmick to defer the expenses of environmental damage to the next generations.
So what if China allows unlimited pollution that is making that country toxic, isn't that why Wall St has sent all of American manufacturing over there, to get in on the free lunch of zero environmental regulations.
So energy companies want to profit from fracking and want to get rid of any regulation that interferes with their profits, but we all will end up paying for the poisoned groundwaters, like in some of Great Plains states where aquifers being poisoned by fracking, aquifers that support our granaries, the bread basket of the world and one of the few things we make in this country anymore.
Just like 'Pray Away the Gay', maybe we could Pray Away the Industrial Toxic Poisoning the deregulation gangsters want us to swallow.

Rick of TX 8:44PM July 15, 2011

In my comment I stated that I think "most of the recently enacted environmental regulations are costly and ineffective". I think environmental regulations and advances in science have done a tremendous job to improve water and air quality in the past 40 years in the United States. However, I believe that the benefit of additional environmental regulations have a diminishing return, and that many of the rules passed in the past 5 years (particularly those involving Climate Change) are not producing the results to justify the costs.
In response to your comment: "Where I live the latest air quality report shows 27 code orange and red air quality days. That's nearly a full month of days when it was literally hazardous to my health simply to breathe. So don't tell me the EPA isn't needed any more. And that's actually down about 2/3 from a decade ago."
How many more people live in NJ and how many more cars are operating currently compared to a decade ago? It is a simple law of nature, more population = more consumption of natural resources = more pollution. The more people on the planet, the more air pollution there will be.
Also, regarding your mother's life worth, her value is only to those who knew and loved her... unless of course she did something revolutionary and amazing during her life. My mother grew up in NJ and died of cancer relatively early, even though she never smoked and lived a relatively healthy lifestyle. I think it is sad because her parents and grandparents lived about 40 more years each compared to her, but I don't think the rest of the world needs to put a "value" on her life.
In response to your comment: "And if you have no respect for lives saved, consider the reductions in medical costs and the increase in productivity due to healthier workers."
Actually, due to advances in medical technology and pharmacology, the decrease in the smoking population, and a healthier environment, Americans are living longer. The longer we live, the more we cost society, so in actuality a population where everyone lives longer is going to increase medical costs.
A Dutch study published last year in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal said that health care costs for smokers were about $326,000 from age 20 on, compared to about $417,000 for thin and healthy people. The reason: The thin, healthy people lived much longer.

Libertarian American of CA 7:23PM July 12, 2011

While the EPA does have a purpose still, you cannot deny it has caused overregulation to the point of hurting the economy. While I will agree corporate greed is the reason for companies moving out of the country in the past 5 years or so, but before that it was the EPA that caused the companies to move before then.
As for Climate change this planet is billions of years old and the human race is tens of thousands years old. I find it a little hard to believe this current trend in our climate can be projected accurately when we only recently started tracking global temperatures around 150 years ago. Our planet and people are entirely too old to justifiably state for a fact this will continue.
There are numerous factors contributing to this, none of which can be regulated. If the earth is warming or cooling, there is a direct relationship to our orbit of the sun. Our planet does not orbit in the same path year after year.
If people are a problem to the environment then it has to do with over population. However, we cannot legislate the number of children someone has with our current civil right laws (You cannot tell a Catholic to have only 1 child), also that is out of the EPA's jurisdiction.
I am not advocating getting rid of the EPA or dumping toxic waste in to our oceans. Will you at least agree we have made improvements over the last 30 or 40 years that are astounding. We are no longer at the breaking point like we were when Acid Rain was so prevalent. We now can relax a little and see where our current laws bring us.
Climate scientists are not fortune tellers, the only thing can tell you accurately is what has happened within a given time frame, not what will happen in the future. Especially since it has been proven that our planet's temperature has fluctuated over the years, with and without any human interference.

Ymerej of 11:37AM July 12, 2011

...with a ton of idiots commenting. wake up, liberal sheeple.

SilenceLiberals of TN 10:02AM July 12, 2011

We are croaking in the worst drought and heat wave in recent history here. Inhofe and the rest of the idiot republican buttocks need to start reading. We can't let their cult of stupidity destroy us. The republicans have got to quit electing stupid people to office.

Baking of TX 3:31PM July 11, 2011

The neo-pantheist religion of Environmentalism, and its dogmatic scorn for civilization and industry, is an insurmountable hurdle for business, and therefore for job creation.
The notion of "green jobs" is nothing more than sop for the working class. The idea that hiring two people in "green jobs" to supply the energy that one did by traditional means is inefficient and counter productive. It will only lead to higher costs for goods and services - just as Cap and Trade will.
Global Warming, now relabeled, "Climate Change", is nothing more than a cudgel with which to threaten and subdue populations into lockstep with the State Religion of Environmentalism. To control the production of "green house gas" is to control; energy, economies, food and ultimately people.
In addition to raising prices, increasing energy dependence and costing jobs, dogmatic Environmentalism is closing off access to "public lands". Access roads, campgrounds and recreational venues are being constantly eroded by the imperious enforcement of Environmentalist theology. Access to the outdoors is systematically being eliminated for the handicapped, families with young children, the elderly, and everyone who does not possess the skills, stamina or have the time for arduous back-country camping. In what other sector of our society would we accept the disenfranchisement of the old, very young, infirm or handicapped? But this is exactly what happens when access roads, campgrounds and millions of acres are put off limits due to concern over any one, of hundreds, of exaggerated, esoteric issues concocted from Green dogma.
This theological/political alliance is what the progressives always feared Christianity would become. Well folks, take a look at what came through the back door. Its intolerant theology is now ensconced in law, regulations, schools, media, governments and the U.N.. I fear it may already be too late to root it out.
Going Green Has Gone Too Far!

R.L. Schaefer of CA 1:09PM July 11, 2011

Can you believe the number of stupid republicans out there? They have become a cult of stupidity. This may be the first time in history where a group has come together based upon the premise that ignorance is bliss.

WhatHappened To The Tuna of CO 4:57PM July 10, 2011

The portrayals of EPA as off the rails, unconstitutionally overstepping their mandates and overreaching are unjustifiable. On Greenhouse Gas regulation, one consistently-missing piece of the discussion is that under the Bush administration, EPA was in fact ordered to regulate greenhouse gases by the Supreme Court (Massachusetts v. EPA, 2007).
Likewise, the portrayals of "industry-killing" and "job killing" are unfair and unjustfiable. Consider the energy sector for example - our nation has been able to reduce harmful emissions significantly over the last several decades - back in the 1970s, things like smog and acid rain due to NOx and SOx were a constant problem and issue - yet these have been reduced tangibly improving health and quality of life - even as we now are able to supply vastly more energy now than we did in the 1970s.
The far bigger threat causing jobs to be killed or driven offshore is the ever-growing culture of corporate greed - consider that last year average corporate CEOs wages shot up another 23% even as millions of American workers went jobless. They would rather put another 10 million in their pockets, at the expense of their shareholders and their company's best interest than invest in their own company and their own nation's future.

Frank of PA 8:16AM July 10, 2011

Where I live the latest air quality report shows 27 code orange and red air quality days. That's nearly a full month of days when it was literally hazardous to my health simply to breathe. So don't tell me the EPA isn't needed any more. And that's actually down about 2/3 from a decade ago. So don't tell me the EPA isn't effective.
And don't tell Americans hate the EPA. A bipartisan American Lung Association poll found 75% of Americans support stronger standards on smog. 72% said Congress should leave the EPA alone and let it do its job. By a 2-to-1 margin Americans agree we can protect our health without sacrificing jobs. So scare tactics aren't working. Americans know who's on their side.
And you didn't answer my question, d of MI. How much was my mother's life worth?

Rob of NJ 7:07PM July 09, 2011

EPA must be eliminated. The EPA has long outlived its usefulness and passed the point of diminishing returns with its regulations. It is poplulated by a bunch of left wing zealots that want to destroy our economy at all costs. While the EPA pulls numbers out of thier butts about how this regulation or that regulation is needed, people are losing their jobs and industry is leaving this country in droves. Interestingly enough, the industries that left here are relocating elswhehre where environmental laws are weak or nonexistent. Therefore, excessive EPA regulation in this country has not only helped destroy our economy, the total pollution levels by the relocated industries are much higher.
The rivers are no longer burning, but our economy is failing and the EPA is a major cause. It must be replaced by a non-ideological agency that does not feel the need to endlessly over-regulate just to perpetuate itself and its slavery to the loony left.

d of MI 6:14PM July 09, 2011