Identifying Federal Regulations that Impede Job Creation and Slow the Economy
by Rep. Tom McClintock (R–CA)As Chairman of the Water and Power Subcommittee of Natural Resources, my colleagues and I are excited and eager to undertake the mission outlined in House Resolution 72: to identify the federal regulations in this field that are impeding job creation and slowing the economy.
The only problem is deciding where to begin.
A generation ago, the principal objective of our water and power policy was to create an abundance of both. It was an era when vast reservoirs and hydro-electric facilities produced a cornucopia of clean and plentiful water and electricity on a scale so vast that many communities didn’t even bother to measure the stuff.
But that objective of abundance has been abandoned in favor of rationing shortages caused by government.
The result is increasingly scarce and expensive water and power that now undermines our prosperity as a nation.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the Central Valley of California. The last Congress sat idly by as this administration deliberately diverted 200 billion gallons of water away from the most abundant agricultural region of our nation – all to satisfy the environmental left and its pet cause, a three inch minnow called the Delta Smelt.
These willful diversions cost over 20,000 farm workers their jobs, inflicted up to 40 percent unemployment rates in the region; destroyed more than a quarter million acres of the most fertile farmland in our nation and forced up the price of groceries for us all.
Or we could look to the Klamath, where this administration is pushing to tear down four perfectly good hydroelectric dams that generate 155 megawatts of the cleanest and cheapest electricity on the planet – enough to power over 150,000 homes — because, we’re told, of catastrophic declines of salmon.
When I suggested building a salmon hatchery instead, I was informed that there already is one: it produces 5 million salmon smolt each year – 17,000 of which return to that river as fully grown adults to spawn – but they’re deliberately ignored in the population counts. To add insult to insanity, as they tear down these dams in the name of saving the salmon, they’re also tearing down the fish hatchery.
Or we could begin in Colorado, where they’ve sacrificed over 1,000 megawatts from the Glen Canyon Dam for the humpback chub – at the expense of a long neglected species called Homo sapiens.
Ronald Reagan was right: in this crisis, government is not the solution to our problems – government is the problem. The good news is that’s within our power to correct – and it was clearly the mandate of the American people in 2010.
And we will act on that mandate beginning with a series of hearings and actions directly related to this much-needed resolution.
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44 Comments
That is one huge job as most regulations do impede free enterprise.
Basicly, any regulation put out by the EPA should be abolished along with the EPA itself. At that point, we can replace them with adults with common sense. This move by itself will mean that the New EPA will need a budget 1/100th of the current amount.
Long neglected Homo sapiens. Yes, when will we humans get a chance to compete with the other living things on this planet.
Rep. McClintock-
Keep up the good fight!
Thanks
Abolish the EPA! HAHAHAHAHA! You're kidding right? Do you have any idea what the EPA does? Do you think industry should be able to dump toxic waste into our country's lakes and rivers? Do you think companies should be able to emit as much toxic gas into the air as they want?
You tea party idiots can only think in absolutes. The world is too complex for you to grasp. You can't possibly imagine that the EPA does some good things, while they also do some things you disagree with. Abolish the EPA. Laughable.
At this point, the most merciful thing would be for California to slide into the ocean….
I'll miss those days on the pier in Santa Monica…..
I think the progressive movement is so embedded we have no chance of surviving and this is an example of their agenda to bring us (not the government, just the people) down to a third world level and establish a new world order. In order to accomplish that they will use any and all means to collapse the economy. OB is good at it, he has a handbook and is more aggressive than Bush was at it, but they are both bad for America.
This post is so thick with irony, one can hardly fathom it. You say we can only think in absolutes while COMPLETELY ignoring that he does NOT abolish the EPA permanently, but demolishes, and starts over from scratch with what he calls the new EPA. You douche baggers too damn stupid to understand a post, too lazy to read a post, or too arrogant to think?
THEN you tell us the world is too complex to grasp while COMPLETELY ignoring the NUMEROUS flaws in the EPA! So the concept of a gov't agency over stepping it's bounds is too complex for a douche bagger to grasp is the only logical conclusion.
Now read, douche bag moron, if capable, which is cerainly in question. Meanwhile enjoy your bedbugs that the EPA has allowed to make a come back, something I'm sure you're proud of:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/more_... http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/06/obama... http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/the_epas_g... http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/the_epas_c...
I bet in your "mind" this post actually has something that someone could tangentially call substance, don't you?
Wish there were some easy answers. The most important thing, however, is to not let this issue (which you know can be created – creating shortages has often been used for political agendas) be used to remove more of our liberties. Please openly declare you will fight Agenda 21 being implemented through SmartGrid where our liberties and privacy will be subjugated.
Thanks.
Thanks for setting the pup straight. Better than I could have or would have. I think that it's not old enough to remember when rivers caught on fire and sewer treatment was almost non-existent. Air in urban areas really was toxic. He thinks CO2 is a toxin, I'm certain. We needed the old EPA at that point in time but now is a different world with different issues. I'll shut up as I'm preaching to the choir….
BTW- Sending a troll to the American Thinker is like sending a vampire into the sunlight. I just hope it goes there…. : -)
The problem with so many of these asinine regulations stems from the fact that the left and the enviro-whackos place no more value on the life of a human being than they do other creatures, however small and insignificant they are. I am a person who appreciates nature and the outdoors as much as anyone, and admire wildlife of all kinds. However, if I need to make a choice between what is best for humans and the possible extinction of a bug, I'm going with the humans. Should we do all we can to be good stewards of the planet – of course we should. But we need to do what is necessary for the continued survival of mankind if we are to be of any use in safeguarding the planet. And that means exercising common sense, not being regulated to death by a bunch of well-meaning (in some cases) but totally irrational and unconstitutional agencies.
That'll cut 75 miles off the drive to the beach! All Right! Just have to drive South instead of west. I'll miss Lake Shasta, though.
Gun control laws, rules and regulations – the BATF&E itself along with all the other alphabet agencies and departments, like the EPA, DEA, DOE, DOI, DHS, DOE (both energy and education) and all the rest with all their constrictions on freedom are literally killing the economy itself because they are killing the American dream itself. What do they all have in common? Every bit of it exemplifies government overstep of authority and usurpation of inalienable rights.
Here is a good example of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lr7Z3yH_uk
Whenever the government gets involved in areas outside of it's constitutional authority the only results sure to come are the opposite of it's stated goals and further erosion of our freedom!
The Obama administration is the biggest impediment to all business.
Abolish the EPA, then start a new one!…. hahaha. Wouldn't you call that, changing the EPA? I didn't ignore the flaws of the EPA. I think I acknowledged that it has flaws when I said, it does good things, and other things people can disagree with. Its complex. It could be partially wrong.
I bet in your mind you thought you were smart for using the word tangentially, but you didn't use it properly.
Huh? Yes I know that CO2 isn't toxic. Do you know that CO2 is a heat trapping gas? You seem to acknowledge that the EPA is actually necessary.
Smartgrid = very, very bad. Nuff said.
Uh, that scam has already been outed, buckwheat, or are you slow on the uptake? We acknowledge SOME agency needs to control environmental waste, but we need to make sure it's really WASTE first, not just somebody breathing heavy.
Tell the EPA to stop requiring the 5 day BOD test and substitute the 2 hour COD test on water discharge permits. Who knows how many untold millions of dollars and work hours are devoted to doing a test whose QC is so unreliable that even enforcers from our local DHEC call it voodoo. And did I mention that the results are 5 DAYS later? A COD test can give you a reliable result the same day and for less cost. But, as long as government agencies can make money from fines for failed QC results on the test (never mind that the samples themselves would be within limits) this god forsaken waste of time and money will never go away.
So you say. Care to ignore the actual issue some more, child?
Rep.McClintock, here's one for you to PLEASE consider: http://www.greencar.com/articles/can-convert-natu...
There is an insane process in place that now prevents Americans from converting gasoline cars over to natural gas. It used to be a simple and cheap conversion, and still is, elsewhere in the world. We sit atop vast reserves of natural gas, but cannot run our vehicles on it, solely because of EPA (and CARB, in CA) regulation. Even licensed mechanics cannot convert vehicles for us, as the licensing and certification process amounts to over $200,000 for a single, specific, engine, from a single, specific model year. As such, what used to be a $200 conversion, now costs $12,000 to $20,000, per vehicle.
The process is set up such that only government and big business can afford to convert vehicles, by converting fleets. EPA justifies their position because they consider conversions to be tampering with emmission control systems, even though natural gas burns far more cleanly than gasoline. If ever there were a costly and unnecessary regulation, this is the poster child!
As a Former Furniture Man. I can assure you If the Fed. Govt.. WOULD NOT HAVE REGULATED AND TAXED US TO DEATH .. STUPID CEDA ..EPA RULES AND LAWS .. PERMITS .. INSURANCE POLICIES .. WE could compete with China today as could many other Products .
EXPORTING IS A BEAR BECAUSE OF THE FED.
Which issue? The fact that we have to find a balance between using surface waters for energy, irrigation and household use and driving freshwater ecosystems to destruction?
99 TO 1 You have never been in Business .
If you had to deal with the KGB .. EPA … Your Post would have been 10000001% different .. Guaranteed !
99 TO 1 You have never gone to College.
What form of government do we have? Do you really know? If you think we are a democracy, you really need to watch this video for a reality check.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DioQooFIcgE&fe
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
George Washington
I don't want to compete with other living things.
I just want them served in a nice sauce on a bed of rice.
It gets replenished by a thing called "RAIN".
Anything related to Agenda 21 is bad. Unless you live is some dirt infested third world country.
Elevating nature above man will only get a lot of people in blue hats killed.
Do you know what the differences between Agenda 21, smart grids and privacy are?
…and the power company does not come on my property to read my meter.
"The only problem is deciding where to begin."
Suggestion to the GOP:
From Saul Alinsky, Rule 11: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it." DEFUND IT.
Wow. You're really that ignorant of the issue. Shocking. No actually. Predicable. When you dam a river, there is less water in the river downstream of the dam. It also changes the water temperature among other things, and makes river uninhabitable for certain species. So you have to balance making power with making certain fish species go extinct. People fish for recreation, and salmon for example are a huge commercial fishery that need to swim upstream to spawn. So there are actual economic trade-offs. You have to at least acknowledge that its a trade-off to be taken seriously.
What…!?
Gentle Readers: The Delta Smelt, Salmon and the Humpback Chub are not endangered species. There is no legal requirement behind these decisions.
The ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT required protections for Endangered Species. The Obama Administration claims these fish are ' threatened '. A hatchery is a perfectly acceptable solution so far as the Courts are concerned.
Kindest Regards,
John Lepant Brighton CO
Too bad Nobama will derail everything you suggest. He IS going to veto any attempt to undermine his precious nanny state.
Idle thought: pass a law prohibiting the implementation of any EPA regulation.
"Regulation — which is based on force and fear — undermines the moral base of business dealings. It becomes cheaper to bribe a building inspector than to meet his standards of construction. A fly-by-night securities operator can quickly meet all the S.E.C. requirements, gain the inference of respectability, and proceed to fleece the public. In an unregulated economy, the operator would have had to spend a number of years in reputable dealings before he could earn a position of trust sufficient to induce a number of investors to place funds with him. Protection of the consumer by regulation is thus illusory."
– Alan Greenspan
(1926- ) Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (1987-2006)
Eliminate the EPA and let the individual states decide if they want to make their own EPA's. The states know what's best for themselves, and they can set up environmental regulations that will work best for their state. Or if they don't want any environmental regulations, they don't have to make any.
The federal government through the EPA has a real chance at destroying the Texas economy through Cap and Trade. They could do this to any state. Just keep that in mind if you support the EPA at all.
We are done with competing. We are the top of the food chain. Nature created us for a reason (if you put religion aside for one moment). Did you ever stop think what we are doing just might be part of natures way? Unless of course you believe your above nature.
Scary isn't it.
Here is another one for you: Crude Oil is a green earth product.
SO what are you doing about habitat destruction other than being a hypocrite?
Where do you obtain your food, clothing, lumber, electricity, and fresh water supplies?
Everything you use and touch has resulted in the degradation and destruction of the "original environment" that existed before mankind.
You sound like that disgusting fat slob liar AlGore.
Of course I realize that everything we do contributes to destruction of ecosystems. I don't have to go live in a cave to be part of modern civilization and believe that we should try to protect the environment more. I don't think there is anything morally wrong with humans altering the natural environment, its what all organisms do, but I do think we need to understand how things like dams impact our environment and make informed decisions based on that knowledge.
I didn't respect the unbalanced approach that the article took. It viewed environmental considerations as foolish and pointless without even explaining them. Not a very thoughtful post.
Nature's way? What is nature's way? If everything is nature's way, then lets you and I just lay down and die right here. Maybe that's nature's way.
Or maybe we are thinking being that have the power to understand our world and make decisions. And if the path we're on now (Nature's way?) involves us diminishing the life supporting capacity of our planet, then my thinking brain tells me we should change our behavior so that we can be happier and prosper longer.
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