The Public Policy
Obsessive-Compulsive Environmentalism
The cleaner the enviroment, the more desperate enviros become to tackle the Next Big Scare.
America’s massive and well-funded environmental industry is always in need of new worlds to conquer, or at least to attack with broom and dustpan. But the irony behind the modern-day environmental movement in America is that the more successful the movement is, the more petty subsequent goals necessarily become. There is no other choice. The big environmental organizations have mouths to feed and rents to pay just like any other business. They’re not going to offer up an attaboy to the nation and close up shop just because America has reached a level of environmental purity that would have been impossible to imagine just 50 years ago.
Risk, and more specifically the way that average American perceives risk, is the crux of the matter. So long as Joe and Josephine McOrdinary believe that substantial environmental hazards exist that threaten the well-being of themselves and their children, the environmental movement will continue to maintain traction and, most importantly from its perspective, a healthy balance in its checking account. The flip side of that scenario is the one that strikes terror into the hearts of Sierra Club fundraisers, for if the public ever perceives that today’s environmental risks are really pretty mundane, the good times will be over.
The pressing need to find new problems to solve is moving the big environmental organizations in new directions. Their unending search for risks to micromanage and overinflate are leading towards a growing war on chemistry and common sense. The key for the American people will be for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to leave the fringes to these environmentalists and pursue a smarter course that truly defines risk for American consumers.
The fact remains that because American industry is greatly improving its environmental practices and is proactively addressing all the “big problems,” there’s only one way for the EPA to stay relevant: find little “problems” — even tiny, infinitesimal ones — and inflate them into issues of tremendous importance. Combine the poorly understood concept of risk, a technically ignorant mainstream media, and a public that has been conditioned to equate the word “chemical” with “deadly poison” and you have the ideal conditions to do just that. And if that kind of approach to environmental management sounds as if it will require the services of a public relations firm rather than a team of scientists, no matter. The environmental movement has been comfortable working in this manner for decades.
It’s all about The Next Big Scare. It always has been. The focal point of the latest Next Big Scare involves four letters: TSCA, which stands for the Toxic Substances Control Act. Passed in 1976, TSCA provides a comprehensive approach to the safe manufacture and use of chemicals in the United States. Certainly the EPA seems to think so, based on its own thumbnail description of the Act. Here’s how the EPA describes what TSCA is at its website:
• It requires pre-manufacture notification for “new chemical substances” before manufacture.
• It requires testing of chemicals by manufacturers, importers, and processors where risks or exposures of concern are found.
• The EPA must issue Significant New Use Rules (SNURs) when it identifies a “significant new use” that could result in exposures to, or releases of, a substance of concern.
• The EPA maintains the TSCA Inventory, which contains more than 83,000 chemicals. As new chemicals are commercially manufactured or imported, they are placed on the list.
• It requires those importing or exporting chemicals to comply with certification reporting and/or other requirements.
• It requires reporting and record-keeping by persons who manufacture, import, process, and/or distribute chemical substances in commerce.
• It requires prompt reporting if any chemical not in the TSCA Inventory presents a substantial risk of injury to health or the environment.
Sounds pretty comprehensive, doesn’t it? Sure, there are tweaks that could be added to modernize TSCA and make it more efficient, such as a sensible prioritization plan proposed by the American Chemistry Council. But for the most part TSCA has been pretty effective at doing what it was designed to do: prevent the public and the environment from being exposed to dangerous amounts of exceptionally toxic chemicals.
Unfortunately, the demands of Next Big Scare require us to believe that TSCA isn’t doing its job, that there are either: 1) large amounts of moderately toxic chemicals that have somehow slipped through the TSCA net, or 2) there are tiny amounts of incredibly toxic chemicals that have done so.
Of particular concern is EPA’s focus, in the name of risk management, on chemicals that may be found in the environment in incredibly tiny concentrations. The Agency’s approach to siloxanes, an innocuous class of compounds used in a variety of ways, including personal care products, lubricants, certain plastics, etc., is a prime example.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 3.22.13 @ 7:08AM
It always amuses me to hear the same people who willingly smoke, snort and inject demonstrably dangerous chemicals into their blood streams, and in the case of pot, lard the atmosphere in some areas with same, turn around and relentlessly scream that some "chemical" no one has ever seen or heard of is going to kill babies (and remember, these are the people who routinely advocate killing babies with sharp objects and -- yes! -- chemicals, as long as Planned Parenthood gets paid for it) if we don't Act Now. The Mommy who shrieks with fear at vaccinations for her child will go home and load herself up with rainbow drugs of all persuasions and dare us to say a word to her about it. And saddest of all are Lumpy's Proletariat in the health food store, who are solemnly differentiating between"chemical" vitamins they can buy in Wal-Mart for $4.98 a bottle, and "non chemical" vitamins from the Hippie Store that cost $35 a bottle. Attempts to explain to them that Vitamin C is Vitamin C, and it's all chemicals, get that blank look, that shrug, and that "whatEVER" that says "Go away, grandma, ya bother me" with the truth. Idiots are everywhere, and their earnestness in prattling slogans proves that the Brave New World has arrived. If you haven't read the book, read it now. It's all right there in black and white.
evie826| 3.22.13 @ 2:38PM
It’s by-far the best job Ive had.. Make money with Google. On thursday I got a brand new Chevrolet Corvette since I been earning $5269 this-past/4 weeks and-even more than, $10,000 this past month. I work through this link,
http://tw.gs/YbVcey
Von Mises Jr| 3.22.13 @ 8:30AM
The 24-7-365 scare mongering is to keep people's eye off the counterbalancing issue: expropriation of private property rights.
If they were not railing against fake monsters then the people might actually watch Agenda21 YouTube "for dummies" and understand that it is about taking your property and putting your kids in a Mao-like factory city (or the sanitized verbiage of "Urban Centers" and "Industry Clusters").
It worked great for old Mao. The people lived in rat-hole little apartments, worked for the fascist factory and lived in poverty. Since one could not travel freely and must present travel "Papers," one could also not escape.
So you better not pout, you better not cry, you better not flee I'm telling you why," Barack-O-Claus is coming to town. "He's checking your emails and checking them twice, gonna find out if you're naughty or nice," Barack-O-Claus is coming to town.
And with the new mercury laden light bulbs and leaky solar panels, pollution is guaranteed in perpetuity.
Moe Blotz| 3.22.13 @ 9:18AM
Youse can probably relate to this one in New Juhsey, Von. The one acre I call home is on the site of a former business that burned down in 1991 and I bought the place five years ago. The title search produced no discrepancies or environmental questions, so I completed the deal. Last year NJ DEP sent me a letter telling me under the new rules passed in 2009 I was responsible for proving there was no underground storage tank for gasoline that allegedly fed the fire in 1991. No proof exists that the business here had a gas pump or tank, but a local citizen called in to the DEP of 1991 to tell them that the fire was caused by gas and that the tank was buried in gravel. The word left out of the conversation was acetylene gas that fed the fire. DEP will condemn my property if my licensed state remediation specialist finds any soil containing pollutant from the fire. The whole case is based on heresay and I have two witnesses that knew the business operator, who died two years ago.
Von Mises Jr| 3.22.13 @ 10:25AM
This is Agenda21 working its way through the DOT, HUD and EPA in The Union of Soviet Socialist of Jersey.
To Governor Christie's credit, it appears the Development and Redevelopment Plan seems to have stalled. But if you wish to understand what the OPA is planning along with the Sierra Club, you can still find the Draft Plan on the NJ website.
Socialism means to socialize our property while the socialist collect multiple pensions for life.
Skippy| 3.22.13 @ 5:05PM
I propose we institute the "Red Tag Nation". Every Big Govt official has the right to place a red tag on anything a citizen owns. Once they do we are supposed to sheepishly comply. Horsecrap. Screw them. When a red tag is hung, celebrate it. Throw a party! Invite your neighbors! Refuse to submit to their overreaching and outright confiscation. Screw the courts; the left owns them too. Simply go about your life as usual. When the umpteenth warning letter arrives, tear it up and mail back the pieces. When one of us does this, he will be jailed. When 1,000 of us do, it will make the news. When 10,000,000 do, the State will be forced to change or admit their powerlessness. It beats going silently into the dark night of slavery.
paintbrush| 3.23.13 @ 11:25PM
Try getting your septic system installed in that state. In fact not only does the local township require a permits, besides the EPA requirements, as well as inspections…but since the property exists near an area where certain migratory birds use, the State Audubon Society had to send someone to place microphones into the trees for a month to see if these birds were using the area before we would be allowed to replace our sewer system on our own property.
Al Adab| 3.22.13 @ 9:40AM
Worship of the environment is simply another of the false gods which our culture idolizes. Tolerance, Diversity, Choice and others are the wrong gods to follow when setting public policy.
Conservatives are just that. Conservation, the wise management of resources is not the same as environmentalism. It reflects a rational rather than emotional approach to the issue. The Left seeks after emotionalism and makes decision on that basis. Rational analysis takes second place to pre-selected outcomes. It is not a wise method to follow.
Petronius| 3.22.13 @ 10:36AM
Environmentalism is NOT about protecting the environment. It's about Prohibiting commerce in natural resources so "evil corporations" can't make money doing it, and contributing to the average standard of living. They revel in it. The social side of this issue is defined by their political parasitism which is as much an intention as it is a byproduct of their activities which do more damage to the household economy of the average person than he'll ever be aware of, and the fact that they all live off of US at a much higher level than your garden variety welfare queen. They get fat without "having to work for The Man." The saddest fact is they start corrupting our children's minds from age 2 and by the time they turn 7 nobody can shake their beliefs that WE are horrible for wanting to live better than we are. And these brats are insufferable. Tell them those films of polar bears on ice flows are stock footage from 40 years ago and the story is nonsense since the numbers are increasing and they call you a liar with all the venom they can muster. Unless Real Adults take back academia from the hippies, we're toast.
Arnie| 3.22.13 @ 11:15AM
"America’s massive and well-funded environmental industry"
Would that be massive, well funded, and subsidized like the oil and gas industry?
Not even close by a long shot.
markenoff| 3.22.13 @ 12:50PM
The oil and gas industry is massive and well funded because they provide products that people want.
Al Adab| 3.22.13 @ 1:06PM
We would not need to subsidize selected industries were the regulatory and tax burdens on them not so egregious.
I have never come to understand why it is bad for companies and the people they employ to make money. I thought that was the point of it all.
Stephie| 3.22.13 @ 3:50PM
Do you have a car Arnie/Purp? Do you have any plastic in your home? Do you heat your home?
Are you really as ignorant as you sound?
Bob Grant| 3.22.13 @ 10:03PM
I picture Arneeeee in a '67 VW Bug that runs on methane. The source of the methane, you ask? His nightly trists with Purp provide enough noxious gas for him to putter around whatever college campus he occupies.
spike59| 3.25.13 @ 6:06AM
Yes, actually, he IS...
Brubaker| 3.22.13 @ 4:18PM
Modern civilization requires the products of the oil and gas industry for its continued existence.
Environmental activists? Not so much.
spike59| 3.25.13 @ 6:09AM
well, they ARE biodegradable, so eventually they'll have a purpose; fertilizing the earth...but till then, they're like ants at a picnic
cicero| 3.22.13 @ 12:02PM
As I warned in a speech in around 1972, the biggest danger faced by this country was government by fiat. Well, we are there. The country and its people are being stripped of their property and rights by unelected beaurocrats, who have the power to write and enforce regulations that carry civil and criminal sanctions. All this is done with virtually no real oversite by our elected officials, and with no way to challenge without bankrupting ourselves. Unless and until we elect officials who will dismantel these departments, and abrogate the laws establishing them, we are on a steady march to slavery.
Keith H| 3.22.13 @ 12:09PM
Or the sunny panel windy mill industry?
Ronsch| 3.22.13 @ 1:29PM
The latest PSA in the scare campaign was playing during Rush's show yesterday. it went on about how "everything thrown on the ground eventually ends up in the ocean..."
I suppose that is possible, if say, a cardboard box breaks up and blows in a couple of hundred miles from Death Valley to Baja, or from Fairbanks, Alaska to Nome several hundred miles...but come on, really an "immediate threat?"
If they are so concerned why are they not trying to salvage all of the ships, planes, subs, etc., that have been sunk during WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam?
Al Adab| 3.22.13 @ 1:51PM
Interesting point. At the end of WWII the beaches of the world were covered with fuel oil from the ships and tankers which went to the bottom. How much of that fuel oil is still down there leaking into the ocean? The Arizona still leaks oil into Pearl Harbor water.
We seem to have survived that "environmental disaster, just as we did the world ending fires which the Iraqi army started in Kuwait as they left.
Stan Redmond| 3.24.13 @ 8:37PM
I am sure you remember the panic that environmentalists can't find the oil from the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. It is so shocking that it panics liberals that OIL, a naturally occuring part of our environment, is not as destructive as they say it is.
markenoff| 3.24.13 @ 2:46PM
Actually there are two man caused environmental situations that we could do something about. One is the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico caused by fertilizer run off every summer/fall. We could reduce this negative effect on the environment by reducing our subsidies to farmers especially the mandate to use ethanol in our gasoline which encourages farmers to grow corn on more marginally productive land than they would if the mandate/subsidy did not exist.
Second there is an area in the Pacific where pulverized plastic is amalgamating due to the currents. An annual effort to skim this detritus from the surface of the ocean funded internationally would have a positive effect on the environment. But neither of these efforts would add to the bankrolls of any environmental organizations so they have no incentive to champion them.
John Navratil| 3.24.13 @ 5:00PM
markenoff,
There is a growing business in GPS driven fertilizer application as all the runoff is paid for by the farmer who would just as soon keep the money he paid for it in his pocket.
Dave Williams| 3.22.13 @ 3:59PM
OSHA, the EPA, fire marshals....they're all unelected and unaccountable, and they can do pretty much what they damned well please. "All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." If there were a frontier left, I'd light out for it immediately...but since that isn't an option, all I can do is watch the former land of the free and home of the brave be turned into a nation of frightened sheep and obnoxious overlords....sad.
Suzyqpie| 3.24.13 @ 9:27AM
This scholarly audience certainly must have some bets on the upcoming fight between Big Labor vs Big Enviro over the Keystone Pipeline. The referee will be the ever popular Pres 0bama. Pres 0bama has been kicking this oil drum down the road for 4/5 yrs but I don't believe that avoidance and various delaying techniques will continue to be successful, in the 0bama sense of " successful." We will get to witness various groups chaining themselves to the fence at LaCasaBlanca. The verdict will indicate which group is deemed to provide the greater lucre in future elections. The second part of this mystery is the timing mechanism, regarding proximity to the 2014 mids.
John Navratil| 3.24.13 @ 5:12PM
Suzyqpie,
What is interesting is that Big Labor and the Environmentalists are now fighting themselves. The Enviros are now arguing that the jobs to build Keystone XL are temporary and (heaven forfend) will be for non-locals. What's this garbage? All jobs are temporary! Our lives are temporary! Do people who build pipelines for a living work on the same pipeline for their entire lives?
I had an XL opponent claim that the hookers who service the crews would be hooking regardless of whether the pipeline was built or not (no mention of the effect of money in the pocket on the price of a tryst). To which I responded that he should therefore stand down as the carbon was going into the environment whether the pipeline was built or not.
We had to change the subject.