Friends, anyone who has worked in government, or with government, knows that the process to gain approval for any major (or minor) construction project can be agonizing. Many of our environmental laws, in particular, seemed designed to obstruct progress. They're also designed, in many cases, to enrich the lawyers, activists, and special interests that profit from the need to comply with said laws. Now, no one is against Planet Earth, despite what the environmentalists want us to believe. The question is...how do we protect the environment sensibly? Too often, regulations require builders to spend vast amounts in order to comply with requirements that produce no meaningful environmental benefit whatsoever. This needs to end. Long delays in finishing important infrastructure projects are also endangering our economy, and it some cases our safety. The article below advances some common sense solutions that ought to be incorporated in any infrastructure bill. As the article points out, President Trump can only do so much. Congress needs to get in on the act.
https://townhall.com/columnists/billwalton/2018/05/02/taking-action-now-can-save-lives-in-the-future-n2476857
Dr. Waddy: President Trump has the power to cut through deep state obfuscation by well paid bureaucrats who take three hour martini lunches and sneer at the concerns of real Americans. But he has wisely decided to use this power advisedly and wisely. Congress should follow his example. You know, I grew up in 1950's and '60's Buffalo, NY, where the air and water quality was very bad. Legislation and regulation has resulted in an astounding rise in the quality of the same to a sensible and endurable quality. But, uh, that's not good enough for the perfectionist left. Their ideal is unobtainable perfection and an effort to bring it about would serve their goal: the destruction of our culture, society and polity and its replacement with a tyrannically mandated order, from top to bottom, from town to town and block to block, as they figured out in their smoky dorm rooms.
ReplyDeleteJack, it's a shame that environmental regulations aren't subjected to rigorous cost-benefit analysis, or even judged by their actual impact on the environment, in many cases. As usual, the political calculus is pretty simple on the left: to oppose their designs is to oppose the Earth itself...
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: Some breathlessly smitten tree huggers (actually, I love trees and I don't like to kill them) think the Earth to be a living thing and it might be a small step from that to think it sentient and intelligent at a level high or low enough to actually take note of human actions and opinions. My son will be climbing a volcano next to a very active one in Guatemala this week. I trust that entity capable of producing jaw dropping spectacles like that, the good old Earth, is not upset with me for questioning the global warming gospel.
ReplyDeleteQuite right. The Earth will be here long after the environmentalists (and the oil executives) have gone to their graves. Besides which, a species that is capable of damaging the climate is also capable of fixing it...
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