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while i recognize that the EPA has done some good things for this country, i do like drinking clean water and breathing clean air, there is a tipping point where the agency goes from being effective to being draconian. they have reached that tipping point.
I traveled to China in the fall of 2008. If you recall, for the Olympics China instituted a program in the months leading up to the games to get rid of the horrible pollution in Beijing (cars off the roads, factories closed, etc). It worked.
I arrived in Beijing the day after a heavy rain. Hence, when we went out to see the sights it was beautifully clear sky (if very, very cold).
We then left Beijing and toured the country for a week. Upon arrival back in Beijing, I thought "How foggy it is". Not fog, pollution. We went to see the main Olympic stadium (the Birds Nest), and you could not see it from more than 200 yards away (and it was high noon). If I can find in the next few days I will post my photographs.
Senator Barry Goldwater, a true Conservative, was all for the EPA.
“While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment.â€
~Barry Goldwater
I well recall my youth in the 1960s. Even downtown Fort Worth would be polluted as heck from the buses and cars. If you wore a white shirt, and walked about, it would turn a light tinge of gray. Of course, we had it easy compared to Los Angeles; I recall that there was even serious talk about boring a huge hole through one of the surrounding mountains and installing a huge suction fan to draw out some of the smog. Beijing is much like LA: set in a basin, allowing the smog to be trapped.
Mind! I am aware of the excesses of the EPA of late years. But all in all in heartily approve of the job they are doing.
while i recognize that the EPA has done some good things for this country, i do like drinking clean water and breathing clean air, there is a tipping point where the agency goes from being effective to being draconian. they have reached that tipping point.
Exactly and when someone suggests there is people that would allow US cities to look like that they are just being ridiculous.
You realize a very large part of that is from people using low quality coal for heat and cooking?
I fear they don't realize that. They just see "coal" and all coal is the same...dirty, smelly and air polluting and we need to eradicate its usage.
(I've read plenty of your posts explaining this and it did educate me. Thank you).
Gosh I miss the rivers catching on fire in Cleavland.
But I thought the solution to all of our problems was to simply let polluters pollute and there wouldn't ever be a health cost to anyone. That's what Republicans have been claiming for decades now.
You realize a very large part of that is from people using low quality coal for heat and cooking?
The very same coal Republicans claim we need to use here to be "cost competitive".
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