This bill feels like the wind up to H.R.861: To terminate the Environmental Protection Agency.
There is this clarion call: 'return power to the states'; like we are still the original 13 colonies, struggling to forge a collective whole, but needing to maintain a unique identity.
But we are no longer that collection of colonies anymore. We are a cohesive nation, and we DO require federal standards for particular issues; environmental oversight being one of them.
It would be nice to assume that power, returned to the states, would be wielded in the light of pure scientific fact. Sadly this is not the case. The fact is that there will always be officials that will pass or block laws, due to personal science bias, political partisanship, or for financial gain.
Toxins in water and polluted air do not respect lines drawn on a map. They will not be confined to one area. The lack of deliberate and scientific regulation in one state becomes the problem of its neighbors. This is particularly true for water system pollutants flowing south from a contaminated site.
States wanting to engage in dubious environment practices, by bypassing regulation, are the real driving force for removing a federal regulatory body. It will allow them to act in (what they feel) is the best interest of their state …meaning the best interest of the energy industries which feel constrained by federal law (and are busy pumping money into congressional campaigns through super PACs). It’s unlikely, that one bright morning; American citizens arose and clamored with one voice “pass legislation to dump coal waste in our waterways”. It’s unlikely that Americans even care about coal as a viable energy source …will we return to using steam power also?
The vagarious nature of state politics necessitates a larger, more encompassing body to regulate environmental issues. Science is a field of hard fact; verifiable data, created through rigorous testing, over an extended period of time. It is not an opinion!
The saddest part is that once, America, was the innovator of new technologies. Pioneers like Henry Ford ushered in world change with the creation of the automobile. At that time we embraced new technology. We saw the potential. We saw possibility. We worked the long game.
Right now China is poised to be the rising economic power of the technological age. They invest heavily in solar and wind power. They focus intently on creating battery banks large enough to store this power, and when they do, they will become the planets leading provider of clean energy.
We will not.
Our grubby little struggle, for profits at any cost, makes us small in the eyes of the world (and I feel that shame to my core). How can the most powerful nation on the planet, stubbornly cling, to such backward ideas. Once a nation of leaders, free thinkers, inventors; we have now become the ‘moneylenders in the temple’ …’one nation, under currency’.
Right now, at this moment; there are a cascade of anti-environment bills at the national and state level. Unfortunately the states have taken their cue from this administration, and are attempting to undo all the progress we’ve made. Gutting EPA staff is just one step in the effort to remove those ‘pesky’ regulations.
I want to reach out to you and ask you to support this agency. They need us …but not as much as we need them. They gain no glory from being mocked by politicians, by being told “well the science isn’t in yet”, by being eliminated from jobs they do for the benefit of all Americans. We all need clean air and water, and a biosphere that thrives with ecological diversity.
This agency needs to remain at full capacity, to continue in its role as the sentries / custodians of our country, and the planet. I just want to thank them for their dedications and service!
Support YOUR Environmental Protection Agency …THEIR code is right there in the name.