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EPA: Time to Abolish, Not Merely Restrict
The New American ^ | 12/18/2014 | William F. Jasper

Posted on 12/19/2014 5:11:51 AM PST by HomerBohn

(EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy)

The federal SWAT team of nearly two dozen heavily armed agents from the EPA, FBI, and other agencies descended on the Canal Refining Co. in Church Point, Louisiana. Their target: Hubert P. Vidrine, Jr., the plant manager. His crime? Allegedly storing hazardous materials. His employees were herded up and treated like criminals. They were prevented from using the restrooms for several hours, as well as being denied the right to call their homes and daycare centers to make plans to have their children picked up.

That was in September 1996. It took the federal government more than three years, until December 1999, to indict Mr. Vidrine on one count of illegally storing a hazardous substance, during which time his name was publicly dragged through the mud, his liberties were greatly limited under pre-trial probation, and his family’s finances were devastated. The case against Mr. Vidrine turned out to be completely bogus, a malicious fabrication. The federal prosecutors, realizing they would lose in court, dropped all charges before the start of the trial. On September 30, 2011, 15 years after being subjected to the grief and humiliation of the EPA’s initial assault, Mr. and Mrs. Vidrine received a measure of redress, in the form of a decision by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty awarding them $1,677,000.00 in damages and legal costs.

“This Court finds probable cause did not exist to indict Hubert Vidrine, nor to doggedly pursue him for close to four years,” said Judge Doherty. Moreover, she noted, the EPA’s Keith Phillips “acted with malice” and “set out with intent and reckless and callous disregard for anyone’s rights other than his own ... to effectively destroy another man’s life.”

Taking cognizance of the “egregious conduct displayed by an agent of the government and the devastation wrought on otherwise law-abiding citizens,” Judge Doherty noted that if not for federal immunity law, which disallowed punitive damages, “this Court would have awarded punitive damages in the hope of deterring such reckless and damaging conduct and abuse of power in the future.”

While a punitive judgment in the Vidrine case might have rendered some deterrent effect on the EPA’s rampant abuses, the rogue agency’s ongoing exercise of regulatory despotism is a clear sign that something more than a punitive judgment (paid for by the taxpayers) is needed. The EPA’s SWAT raids have continued, and the agency has become the Obama administration’s prime tool for usurping legislative powers and wreaking havoc upon our economy by executive fiat.

“Obamacare for the Atmosphere”

This past June, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy announced the Obama administration’s draconian new restrictions on electrical power plants, supposedly aimed at combating the (nonexistent) threat of global warming by drastically cutting carbon dioxide emissions. A clue to the destructive potential of this unconstitutional EPA mandate can be found in the enthusiastic praise heaped on it by Daily Beast writer Jason Mark, who saw the “numbingly complex” nature of the new regulations as cause for rejoicing. “You can think of the power plant rules as Obamacare for the atmosphere,” exulted Mr. Mark.

And, like ObamaCare, the costs will continue to skyrocket, if Congress allows the EPA mandates to stand. In addition, more power plants will shut down and our power grid security will be compromised, with brownouts and blackouts becoming more and more common. But the power plant rules are only the tip of the EPA iceberg that is ripping a gaping, lethal hole in the hull of the USS Titanic. In 2013, the EPA released its study entitled Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters, which signaled a ramping up of the agency’s plans to claim regulatory authority over virtually all water within the United States. The agency is now asserting that “intermittent, and ephemeral streams, are physically, chemically, and biologically connected to downstream rivers via channels and associated alluvial deposits.” The same applies, says the EPA, to “vernal pools” and “prairie potholes” even if they are miles from any water reasonably considered “navigable.”

Obama’s EPA has grand visions of controlling everything under the sun: soot, road dust, rainwater runoff, pesticides, chlorine, methane, ozone, chloroflourocarbons, and, most especially, CO2 — human breath — which, far from being a pollutant, is a beneficial gas that is essential for plant life on this planet. All the EPA’s claims, naturally, are aimed at protecting the environment and are based on sound science. Right? If so, why has the agency steadfastly and repeatedly refused to allow independent scientists to review its work and even stonewalled congressional subpoenas to release the “science” it is using to impose hundreds of billions of dollars in costs on Americans?

On November 19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H. R. 4012, “The Secret Science Reform Act,” to prohibit the EPA from “proposing, finalizing, or disseminating regulations or assessments based upon science that is not transparent or reproducible.” That’s a start, but a better approach would be to follow the proposal of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) to abolish this unconstitutional monstrosity, a solution that this magazine — along with the late Milton Friedman, Dr. Ron Paul, and many other freedom advocates — has championed since the EPA’s misbegotten birth in 1970.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: abolishepa; epa; epaoutofcontrol
The time for reform is past. It is now time to junk this miserable mess and to use our Constitution it as a blueprint to install a new government and to forge a fresh start.

What we have allowed our present government to do to us is sickening.

1 posted on 12/19/2014 5:11:51 AM PST by HomerBohn
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To: HomerBohn

The Bushes love the EPA. I believe it is Bush father who came with Clean Water Act


2 posted on 12/19/2014 5:15:59 AM PST by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: HomerBohn

You know, they ought to just do away with all the alphabet soup names and put all of them under one:

Way Around Constitution.

It tells the truth about all of them and even forms a fitting name with the first letters.


3 posted on 12/19/2014 5:18:01 AM PST by RWB Patriot ("My ability is a value that must be earned and I don't recognize anyone's need as a claim on me.")
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To: HomerBohn

The thuggery goes on because Americans are law abiding and respect the rule of law. They come with overwhelming force, with all their toyz.

SWAT team deployed for a possible EPA violation? Someday folks won’t be so hospitable.


4 posted on 12/19/2014 5:19:37 AM PST by servantboy777
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To: HomerBohn

HOORAY William F. Jasper! Thanks for posting, HomerBohn.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

DISMANTLE/DEFUND socialist collectives, foreign and domestic (agencies).

http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/

BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM

Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Bastiat

http://www.usdebtclock.org


5 posted on 12/19/2014 5:22:13 AM PST by PGalt
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To: HomerBohn

Do away with the EPA, ban all their employees from all future gov’t employment.


6 posted on 12/19/2014 5:24:09 AM PST by umgud (I couldn't understand why the ball kept getting bigger......... then it hit me.)
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To: RWB Patriot

that’s WAC.


7 posted on 12/19/2014 5:37:37 AM PST by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world.)
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To: lavaroise

nixon


8 posted on 12/19/2014 5:45:53 AM PST by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
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To: umgud

The eradication of the EPA should be easy.

Fire all loafers, rip out the telephone lines, sell off the equipment and board up the windows.


9 posted on 12/19/2014 5:47:37 AM PST by HomerBohn
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To: HomerBohn

The EPA and its partner in crime, the IRS, need to be abolished. Along with various other federal agencies.


10 posted on 12/19/2014 5:50:50 AM PST by lakecumberlandvet (Appeasement never works.)
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To: lavaroise
The Bushes love the EPA. I believe it is Bush father who came with Clean Water Act

Uhhh, no. Let's not do the "Bush's fault" thing. It was Sen. Edmund Muskie. Vetoed by Nixon, but passed by override by even the pre-Watergate Senate and House.

It's insane. The whole EPA must go, yesterday. No river otters would miss it.

11 posted on 12/19/2014 5:56:39 AM PST by SamuraiScot
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To: HomerBohn
Brings to mind FDR and Sewell Avery of Montgomery Ward. FDR was hammering Avery for concessions to his union thug supporters. Avery resisted publicly. FDR had MW seized by National Guard troops and had them, with fixed bayonets, charge MW's Chicago headquarters and haul Avery out of his office. FDR justified this by claiming the mail order firm was hindering war production.


12 posted on 12/19/2014 6:09:26 AM PST by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes EVERYTHING)
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To: HomerBohn

‘The federal SWAT team of nearly two dozen heavily armed agents from the EPA, FBI, and other agencies descended on the...’

This is called intimidation and ‘legislating’ from the business end of a gun. Liberals have no problem with guns as long as its only them who have them. They also see no problem using them for the most trivial of reasons. As you can see from this example they have no problem forcing you do bow down and conform to their agenda. They can do this b/c there are no substantive repercussions for such behavior. As one poster already mentioned eventually the reception wont be hospitable.


13 posted on 12/19/2014 6:51:10 AM PST by 556x45
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To: HomerBohn

The EPA should be viewed as an agency that served a purpose, and now should dismantled. Los Angeles, as an example, no longer has a pollution problem. And even if it did Californians are more than a little willing to tackle it themselves.


14 posted on 12/19/2014 7:05:36 AM PST by HMS Surprise (Chris Christie can STILL go straight to hell.)
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To: SamuraiScot

Except that Nixon was the one who proposed the EPA and created it via executive order.


15 posted on 12/19/2014 7:11:43 AM PST by RWB Patriot ("My ability is a value that must be earned and I don't recognize anyone's need as a claim on me.")
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To: Repeal The 17th

Ok, my bad.


16 posted on 12/19/2014 7:56:10 AM PST by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: RWB Patriot
Except that Nixon was the one who proposed the EPA

That's what trying to play nice with Lefties gets you (er, us). The water thing in 1972 was an egregious overreach of Federal authority. Of course, so was the EPA.

EPA delenda est. Kinda catchy, no?

17 posted on 12/19/2014 8:19:09 AM PST by SamuraiScot
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To: HMS Surprise; HomerBohn
"Californians are more than a little willing to tackle it themselves"

CA implemented air regs before the feds, which makes CA the only state that can set higher standards than EPA. The CA guv who signed into law the first auto emission regs was Reagan.

EPA is merely an executive agency whose job it is to implement, administer, enforce the acts of congress. You can get rid of EPA, but NEPA, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc were enacted by Congress and are written into the US Code Book.

OTOH, EPA's authority over regulating CO2 flow from the 2007 decision in which SCOTUS ruled that CO2 was a pollutant and told EPA to regulate it with the Clean Air Act.

18 posted on 12/19/2014 8:23:43 AM PST by Ben Ficklin
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