Ann Marie Buerkle: Why Do You Want To Punish The Planet?

"Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle to EPA Administrator: Why Do You Want to Punish Job Creators?"

Hi! Blueskygirl is back!

This headline appeared on Lonely Conservative's website recently. What is up with Buerkle and her comrades? Are they capable of thinking only in black and white?

• Can you imagine what the country would look like if only the war hawks were ever in power?
• Or what the country would look like if the Department of Education ceased to exist?
• Can you imagine what it would be like if the American's With Disabilities Act were never passed?
• Or if there were no amendments to the Consititution?

But let's get back to the Environmental Protection Agency, whose job it is to protect the land we love. Since the EPA always runs into opposition, 100% of the time, and there are always compromises, Blueskygirl knows that things are not perfect. People still die every year from lousy water, bad air, toxic chemical spills, pesticides in the food chain and so forth. But it could be so much worse. It is a process of compromise in a world of compromise, yes?

Without the EPA, here is a sampler of local impacts:

• fish-free Adirondack lakes
• a never-remediated Onondaga Lake 
• unbridled horizontal hydrofracking from Onondaga Hill to Elmira
• bigger cancer wards (health industry jobs?)
• strontium-90 (in greater levels) in the milk supply
• wealthier energy executives
• the potential for Bhopals here and not just in the "third world"

The ""magic of the marketplace" sounds wonderful. In a world of greed and avarice, that magic is a cruel tool.

You get the picture, I am sure. You got it years ago unless you think only in terms of black and white. Or unless you are a politician trying to scare people.

So, finally, my point: Why does AMB couch her criticism of EPA in terms of lost jobs? 

It is a dishonest ploy and it is worn thin.