EPA, ESA should be scrapped
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Editor,
Three articles in an area newspaper’s opinion section struck me as ironic. One lauded UM, MSU, and Montana Board of Regents for creating the Institute of Ecosystems and was written by the co-directors of said institute.
The second article, written by another environmentalist, lauded the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to approve permits for an underground silver and copper mine (Montanore Mine) in Lincoln County. Apparently, this underground mine would endanger grizzly, lynx, and bull trout. (Remember, the main enemy of bull trout is lake trout, which eat them by the thousands. Common sense will tell you that most of the activity will be underground, so there will be minimal disturbance to grizzlies and lynx.) The owners of this proposed mine have already spent millions of dollars mandated by the EPA et al on studies for the past 10 to 20 years to no avail. Meanwhile, our Democratic congressional representatives and the environmentalists backed by Judge Molloy have virtually shut down almost all logging on federal land, which closed dozens of sawmills, tossing thousands of Montanans out of work as the double-digit unemployment rate in Libby attests.
The final article, written by George Will, bemoaned the fact that Charleston, S.C., cannot deepen its port by 5 feet to accommodate the new larger container ships, which will soon be coming through the new enlarged Panama Canal. Apparently, the 10 to 13-year feasibility studies have taken longer than it took China to dig the new Panama Canal. The obvious solution to these impediments is to eliminate the EPA and all of its laws and let the states manage the environment. We all want clean air and water and good-paying jobs for our sons and daughters. The EPA and its advocates have taken it to an extreme that needs to be curtailed by the elimination of this agency and all of its laws and regulations. The same holds true for the Endangered Species Act. We have seen the above scenarios repeated time and time again for the past two decades. Now is the time to assign these two agencies and others like them to the scrap heap of history.
Norm Johnson
Polson
