Actually, I had 31 hours of college chemistry and a career in industrial chemicals, working in both consumables and capital equipment. I've been retired for a while now.
The first time I worked in pollution control and abatement was before the Clean Air Act. My employer transferred me to CA where Rule 66 was being implemented. I had decades of experience dealing with both federal and state environmental codes as well as OSHA, fire, and electrical code
One needs to look no further than the “debate” over “global warming” to see how far the EPA has gone off the tracks since you retired. The surface temperature data that we have available even as manipulated and flawed as it is... still shows no statistically sinificant warming for approximately 18 years. Yet our EPA and Obama still insist that CO2 is a harmful polutant that is causing irreversable damage. Where is the measurable data that supports this belief? It does not exist.
Yet you call this type of argument, “rightwing rhetoric”. I actually work on a hazmat team. My interaction with the people I come into contact with, the technicians who work with the EPA have mostly been positive. Unfortunately, the technicians make up only a very small percentage of people working for the EPA. I have had conversations with some of the technicians and in some most they are as appalled as I am over what is going on at the administrative level.