This book is about our energy problem and a big part of that problem is caused by the environmentalists. As mentioned before it is really the Congress that is at blame but the thoughts, concepts, reasons and actions of the environmental groups must be addressed and refuted in order to allow us to free up our development of energy. We may even be able to convince some of the insane members of Congress and not have to replace all of them.
The publication , Federal Environment Laws, contains 61 Acts of Congress that have been passed to regulate and control our environment. These regulations started in the middle 1960‘s and were generally completed in the 1990‘s. Those laws regulate the air we breathe and the water we drink. They also control asbestos hazards, atomic energy, our coastal zones, nuclear and oil refinery and processing, endangered species, insecticides, and fungicides. They are involved with federal land policy, forest and rangelands, 1
atmospheric and pollution control, global climate protection, hazardous substances, lead based paint, low level radioactive waste, marine mammal protection, medical waste, mining and mineral resources, coastal monitoring, contaminated sediment, invasive species, noise control, ocean dumping, refuses, renewable energy, rivers and harbors, solid waste disposal, surface mining, toxic substances, and wood residues.
In other words, we are controlled in all aspects of our lives by the environmental laws.
It is probable that our environment is healthier and that our whole country is cleaner and a nicer place to live. However, there must have been some cost for all of that. Maybe we have even given up something of value for that. Or maybe what has been accomplished could have been achieved at lower costs and without depriving ourselves of something that we really need.
These environmental laws have been used to stop our building of nuclear power plants and to reduce our oil refinery capacity. They have prevented our drilling for oil and increased the costs to us of our gasoline. They have forced us to purchase oil from foreign countries in spite of our supply in Alaska, off of our coasts and in shale located in the Rocky Mountains.
They have led to clean-ups in unnecessary locations, have actually led to the mistaken destruction of a whole community, have forced dam construction to be postponed until supposed errors have been fixed, have forced the movement of a hospital to protect some bug, have prevented the clearing of fire-breaks which have led to the fires destroying the property involved, have stopped logging in forests, have stopped farmers from receiving water leading to loss of billions of dollars in lost production and have led to the loss of 40, 000 jobs, have led to the destruction of millions of acres of forest lands by obstructing cleanup in those forests, have had millions of acres of private property placed under the control of the government , have increased the costs of doing business to many companies, have forced us to drive less-safe, less-comfortable and more expensive cars and have enriched thousands of lawyers and law firms in that process.
These laws have been written in a manner that makes it possible for environmentalists to sue at little or no cost to them and has promoted actions which are detrimental to our country. When you examine what has been done it makes you wonder if the purpose was to improve our environment or to harm our nation. The environment in many cases has been improved but in other cases has actually been harmed. Many of the actions taken against businesses has interfered and added to their costs and has deprived us of the use of our own resources.
An excellent example of a law which has harmed us and not helped is the requirement for ―environmental impact studies‖ that is necessary for every project. The study is expensive for it tries to examine all aspects of a project and it also takes a lot of time. Then, some bureaucrat or bureaucrats have to review and approve it and that takes more time and money. When that process is completed nothing has been accomplished. Money has been spent and time wasted but there has been no production of anything. When the project has been finished and completed then tests are done to see if there are violations. If so, then the company is responsible to fix them.
The company was always responsible to meet the requirements of the law and the impact study is ridiculous, expensive and time consuming and does not prevent pollution or anything. It is either an excellent example of bureaucratic stupidity from our government or an actual attempt to interfere with our progress or some form of insanity and should be repealed.
Having a clean environment is obviously good but being deprived of our resources is bad (disastrous?) and anything which substantially increases our costs of doing business is harmful to us. The government is like an octopus strangling us and controlling our economy and the environmentalists have tentacles into every aspect of our lives.
It is time to examine this whole movement and evaluate the results from the environmental laws and their application and what has been done to our ability to produce energy.