[LouAvul]

Nixon signed it into law to appease the liberals of his time, and it was a monumental mistake

Back then I'd be on the road from college (Murray, KY) to my home in Indiana. I had to pass through Louisville and always knew when I was getting close because my eyes started to burn. I could stand on the sidewalk in Louisville in the summer and not be able to see two blocks away because of the pollution.

I think the EPA accomplished the desired effect initially but ran out of legitimate reasons for their existence. But make no mistake, they accomplished some good under Nixon. Subsequently they just became the enforcement arm of whatever president was in office.

They've outlived their usefulness and need to be eliminated, just like many other alphabet agencies.

[SpaceBar]

I agree with you about pollution back then, and yes, they did make a difference, but an open-ended in-perpetuity all powerful agency that for all intents and purposes makes its own laws is not a good thing.

[Hugin]

I agree. If it had stuck to the original purpose, stopping gross pollution, it would be fine. But now it has morphed into an radical environmentalist organization with the full power of the federal government behind it trying to govern every aspect of our lives.

The truth is when Nixon signed it pollution was out of control. The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were successful in eliminating most of the pollution. But to justify their existence they had to make up new problems to solve like declaring CO2 a pollutant.

[tet68]

I think the EPA accomplished the desired effect initially but ran out of legitimate reasons for their existence.

This is the bane of government.
Organs of internal security cannot exist without
an internal threat hence the need to manufacture one
to justify their existance.

Government trades “security” at the cost of “freedom”.

[hinckley buzzard]

Just so. Since 1970 America's air quality and water quality overall have been improved dramatically, and needed to be. "Brownfield" and toxic waste sites (Superfund sites) needing cleanup have been restored in a multitude of locations. Sites of former strip mining operations have been restored to useful more or less natural condition.

So the job has mostly been done, and the remainders such as they are can be handled locally. The EPA's mission has been accomplished and it should be dissolved, remaining functions delegated to the states and municipalities. This is Trump's plan and it is brilliant. The only thing really standing in its way is the stubborn tendency of any bureaucracy to perpetuate its own existence, and the resistance of the special interests now being served.