EPA: It's About Clean Air and Water

The Environmental Protection Agency seems to get the brunt of current anti-government rants and there is an underlying reason for it.

Some people don’t believe environmental crimes are "real" crimes. Those people are wrong.

A bipartisan cast of Congresses and Presidents created America’s environmental laws. EPA does not write these laws. They enforce them for all Americans. And now they are getting pounded for doing their job.

Yesterday the President spoke to EPA staff in Washington, DC, praising their work.

“Because of you, across the board, we’re cutting down on acid rain and air pollution. We’re making our drinking water cleaner and safer. We’re creating healthier communities,” Obama said, “But that’s not all. Safeguarding our environment is also about strengthening our economy. I do not buy the notion that we have to make a choice between having clean air and clean water and growing this economy in a robust way.”

It was a good rah-rah speech, and if the date of the appearance was coincidence I would be surprised.

The day before the speech EPA was being soundly pounded in the U.S. Supreme Court. The case before the nation’s highest court was about an EPA enforcement action in Idaho and filling in wetlands. By many accounts, this case could result in a significant setback in EPA’s ability to enforce environmental laws.

The so-called Sackett case has been well covered in various media. National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) submitted an amicus brief in support of EPA.  ICL contributed to this document and helped find new information to strengthen EPA’s case.

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t know the precise situation in the Sackett wetlands case. I do know, based on ICL’s own research, that there was more to the story than a humble homeowner wronged.

What we also all know is that the constant beating up on EPA is, in great part, based on an intentional campaign—picked up by Republican candidates for president and leaders in Congress—to weaken environmental enforcement by weakening public support for our nation's lead environmental protector. 

Why are they getting away with it?  Because other elected leaders are letting them and, to be candid, environmental leaders are letting them. I was recently part of a meeting where a well-recognized public opinion leader called the national groups and those of us in the room to task. “The public strongly opposes abolishing EPA,” she said, and this is regardless of party affiliation. “If all the GOP candidates said something really stupid and very unpopular about the environment what would you do? Well, they did! Where is the hue and cry?” 

She pointed out that the only strong defense of EPA she could see that broke into media was from Stephen Colbert. It's very funny...sort of.

America is taking clean air and water for granted. The values we take for granted we fail to defend. The values we fail to defend we lose. I was asked last night why ICL is hitting the Atlanta gold mine so hard in court (and winning, by the way). We're doing it because we only keep clean water by defending clean water.

Pollution is a crime, just like other crimes, and it's a tragedy that we're letting candidates for high office—and those in it—pretend otherwise.