Posted on 06/26/2012 10:42:18 PM PDT by george76
Green agenda targets slurry bombers
As fire rages out of control on the edge of Colorado Springs, threatening lives and property, it is time we listen to those who have warned us about the negative effect environmentalists and President Barack Obama have had on the federal governments ability to fight fires.
Much of whats burning is the Pike National Forest, which is federal property. Yet it took almost three days to get federal fire fighting aircraft off the ground to begin dumping meaningful loads of slurry to slow the fires growth. Because the Forest Service has a shortage of planes, Air Force C-130s finally joined the effort Monday afternoon to battle a fire that began Saturday morning.
Part of the problem is red tape and vague policy regarding use of military aircraft to put out fires, even when they burn federal property. Part of it involves intentional interference with aerial fire suppression. Part of the problem is the Obama administration.
Environmentalists have fought the use of slurry for years, which may or may not explain why Obama seems to lack enthusiasm for a robust tanker fleet
...
in September of 2011 that nearly half of the federal governments air tankers sat idle at a California airport, as wildfires ripped through national forests throughout California, Texas, New Mexico, and other states.
It turns out the Obama administration ended a long-standing contract, leaving the Forest Service with only 11 tankers to battle 50 wildfires that were burning nationwide. A decade ago, the Forest Service had 40 firefighting tankers.
The Obama administration canceled the governments contract with Aero Union a company with 60 employees that had been under contract with the Forest Service for 50 years. Though it canceled that contract, the administration had no plan for an immediate replacement.
(Excerpt) Read more at gazette.com ...
Actually what has happened to Colorado is rather more complicated. There are two main factors which have screwed up Colorado politics:
A) Californians fleeing their debased state. Of course those morons then come to Colorado and try to institute the same crap which brought their state down. Lucky us.
B) Tim Gill. Ironic that I have to state only one name eh? Well a number of years back Colorado passed an amendment which stated that Gays would not be a protected class. Eventually this was thrown out by the courts. However this upset Mr. Gill (a founder of Quark, the desktop publishing software company) who happens to be light in his loafers. He then decided to change CO politics by himself by blowing his massive fortune on the cause. He flooded every election in CO at all levels with donations completely throwing things out of what. Local elections which might have had an aggregate spending of 10s of thousands of dollars now had 100s of thousands being spent on the Democrat side, and it had a marked effect. Every level of CO politics took a leftward tilt because of this interference. Gill has spent 100s of millions on this so far, and honestly money sure has talked.
I moved to Colorado partly because it was a good conservative western state. Gill and the CA crowd has been stealing it out from under the conservatives.
Don't forget Pat Stryker and all of her evil inherited wealth, fellow homo Jared Polis who goes through life using his mother's maiden name and Rutt Bridges.
Wildfires causing mass destruction soften people up for climate change legislation.
Government at every level does almost nothing FOR people. It only does things TO people. Local goverment has taken their queue from the federal government and have become the most oppresive form of goverment.
Didn’t recall those, but the article I learned this from was focused on Gill because he ponied up the majority of the money and organized the group of leftist moneybags. Thanks for the extra info.
Why were they grounded?
National Forest Service bureaucrats and some media accounts cite safety concerns. But as Representative Dan Lungren (R., Calif.) noted in a letter ... last year, a Federal Aviation Administration representative said it was a contractual or compliance matter, not safety, that doomed Aero Unions fleet.
former Forest Service official and bomber pilot Tony Kern ... You need to have the airplanes available now. Veteran wildland firefighter Bill Gabbert... The USFS should have awarded contracts for at least 20 additional air tankers, not seven.
An Analysis of the Sierra Club Fire Policy. Activists seldom face technical scrutiny of their policy proposals. They are too busy supplying donors with what they want, to pay much attention to the consequences. As a result, it is surprisingly easy to show how foolish their proposals really are.
I keep trees far enough away from the house. Helps to prevent big socialist spending in the future.
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