“Gosh, they really have to reach to smear Pence, don’t they?”
Is the information true, or not?
If true, it’s not a smear.
Was Pence himself, responsible for it? No? Then it is a smear against him.
Is the information true, or not? If true, it’s not a smear.”
as usual with such fake news, it’s partially true, but with the rest of the story left out ... there are tens of thousands of these abandoned, rusting steel underground gas station tanks all over the country, most of which are so old that everyone has forgotten where they are, and they are only discovered when someone digs to build a new building.
until fiberglass tanks went into use in the last couple of decades every gas station in the country used steel tanks, almost all of them underground ...
furthermore, based on my understanding of the relatively recent EPA rules about abandoned underground tanks, and the several situations that I’ve personally known about with friends with businesses who’ve discovered these things on their property, or property they just bought, is that the responsibility for mitigation solely, and in perpetuity, belongs to whomever currently owns the property with the abounded tanks ...
thus:
A. Pence’s family is being singled out in a seriously biased fashion for a common situation that affects tens of thousands of people through no fault of their own, and
B. I don’t know why the state’s are supposedly on the hook for cleanups: all my friends and acquaintances had to bare the financial burdens of cleanup all by themselves.
In other words, this is a typical leftist fake stream media hit piece ...
It is factual that Kiel Bros. Oil went bankrupt and state governments have had to pay for cleanup (mandated by government regulations). However, as other posters have pointed out, there is no mention of how much sales and property tax revenue the company generated over the years that went into state coffers. Furthermore there’s no mention of what role Mike Pence played in the operation of the company, which was founded in 1941. Pence wasn’t even born until 1959.
Articles like these are not designed to illuminate the truth. They are hit pieces designed to smear the target.
Is the information true, or not?
If true, it’s not a smear.
The government changed the rules ex post facto, with the EPA.
Then the left claims the station owners owe the government money.
The EPA actions have always been unconstitutional, IMHO.
They are penalizing owners for what happened decades prior, when the actions were legal; and the penalties are outrageously excessive.
Partial truths without full information is in fact a smear
Not necessarily. THE most successful propaganda technique is to tell "the truth", but not ALL of "the truth".