Sierra club loved him in the late 90’s:
“Boehlert’s finest hour came in the battle over 17 amendments, or “riders,” that Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) had tacked on to the EPA’s budget, which would have crippled the agency’s ability to enforce environmental laws. In a turning point for the 104th Congress, Boehlert convinced 63 of his GOP colleagues to abandon their party and join House Democrats in voting to ax the riders. “More and more,” Boehlert told the electronic news service Greenwire, “my colleagues who did not support us on clean water or the EPA riders are catching hell back home.” Even DeLay was forced to concede defeat. “We have lost the debate on the environment,” he said. “I can count votes.”
So can Newt: he acknowledged the rising clout of the Republican moderates by appointing Boehlert co- chair of a GOP task force whose aim is to come up with a unified Republican environmental policy—a chore made more difficult by the fact that its other co-chair is DeLay, the man who thinks that DDT is “not harmful,” that the decision to ban CFCs to reduce ozone depletion “is the result of a media scare,” and who is unable to name a single government regulation he favors.”
Note ‘Newt propped him up’ and ‘he took 63 Republicans with him....’ Reminds me of John Kasich taking 42 Republicans with him to pass the Assault weapons ban. Sigh...
And DDT is tasty and should be reintroduced into every country that has a malaria and dengue fever problem.
First, any poison is in the dose. Enough water will kill. Enough Oxygen is toxic.
LD 50 (Lethal if ingested for 50% of 150 lb men) for DDT is 9 grams. By contrast LD 50 for caffine (1-3-7 trimethyl Xanthine) is 5 grams. Noone has ever been killed by spraying DDT. WWII service men would comb it through their hair to kill insects/lice.
A fellow once went to a DDT plant to do a study on cancer. He stopped in to discuss it with the human resources manager. The manager told him he could save him some time. The cancer rate was zero.
The researcher protested. “Surely with 900 people you have had someone with cancer!”
The HR manager walked his claim back, but just a tad. “Well, there is Bob. He was told he had inoperable cancer and only 6 months to live when we hired him. A few months after he began work his cancer went into remission. He has been working here for 9 years, and and is afraid to quit!”
So, Delay was approximately right. DDT is not harmless, but in reasonable doses is not harmful, and is perhaps helpful to humans.
Rachael Carson’s book “Silent Spring” was bad junk science.