Hey, I like the EPA, it has a place and serves a purpose. Unfortunately, it has become entirely too political, it goes well beyond its purpose, and cares little for the people it hurts: Obama’s EPA as an Employment Prevention Agency (via Junk Science)
President Barack Obama, in his recent “energy speech,†declared that a key to lower gasoline prices “starts with the need for safe, responsible oil production here in America. We’re not going to transition out of oil anytime soon.â€
It was a bold statement and should be commended. However, instead of campaign stumping to college students, perhaps the president should have given this pep talk to his own Environmental Protection Agency.
It’s clear that the EPA has lost its way. Since its inception in 1970, the agency has slowly morphed from an entity with a well-defined mission of cleaning up the environment to one that specializes in natural resource development obstructionism. The EPA is now the gatekeeper, deciding which energy projects move forward and which die in a regulatory labyrinth.
That transition has never been more apparent than under the Obama administration. For three years, the EPA has worked with fringe environmentalists to block more expansive oil production in the U.S. Under current Administrator Lisa Jackson, the EPA regularly bypasses Congress and even scuttles the work of other federal agencies. It does this to advance a radical political agenda, rather than promoting policies that create jobs and make energy more affordable.
Protecting the environment is good. Unfortunately, the environmental movement has been hijacked by extremists and those who needed something after their beloved Soviet Union and hard edged Communism died out. The EPA needs to be reigned in and get back to its core mission.
