President Trump has done a tremendous job in his first year in office in taking a machete to the unwieldy thicket of federal regulations that have been choking our economy for decades. Trump’s mandate that two regulations be eliminated with the introduction of each new one has been wildly exceeded, as in fact 16 have been cut for each new rule on the books. Annualized savings so far to our economy is estimated at $570 million per year.
Even better, Trump has been working to defang the wildly activist Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which over the course of the previous four administrations has been on a mission to take its regulatory authority to extremes, harassing and undermining American businesses that create jobs and power our economy.
Still, with all the good news, the far-left environmentalists are not going down without a fight. CASE has reported on new lawsuits against the oil companies in the name of “climate change” as well as numerous other stories involving environmental assaults on energy, transportation, agriculture and property rights, to name a few.
As regulatory sanity continues to make progress under President Trump, it’s important to remember there remains much work yet to be done, and the irreparable damage the extreme environmental lobby is inflicting on our economy. In the spirit of keeping the eternal flame of vigilance alive, CASE offers up some recent examples of how environmental extremism is hurting our economy, threatening our rights, and making us all poorer in the process.
- Wildfires Gone Wild
We’ve all seen the devastation of the wild fires out west, which this year alone have burned through over eight million square acres, a footprint bigger than the state of Maryland. What you don’t hear from the media is that environmental groups have made the problem much worse, through their opposition to logging and clear cutting of dead wood that greatly reduces the extent to which the fires can spread. At nearly every step the U.S. Forest Service takes to address the issue, they’re met with litigation. With more than 1,100 lawsuits filed against actions to protect and preserve our forests, the result has been twenty five years of continued forestry mismanagement which threatens one of America’s most treasured natural resources and is guaranteed to keep our forests burning into the future.
2. The Corny Ethanol Mandate
We all know why God created corn, right? If you listen to Washington, it’s here to process and ship to refineries to mix in our gasoline. Sadly, 10 years after the debate over the Renewable Fuel Standard, consumers are still paying the price for this nonsensical energy mandate requiring a certain portion of our gas to contain corn-based ethanol. Just this month, the largest oil refinery on the east coast went bankrupt, unable to comply with government enforcement mechanisms on blending, a problem that could spread to other refineries and cause a major spike in fuel prices. Unfortunately, the ethanol lobby, based in Iowa wields tremendous clout, drawing on support from anti-oil liberals and farm-belt Republicans. Nearly every candidate for President will support it due to Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus position, and that includes President Trump. An oil refinery going bankrupt leading to higher gas prices is music to environmentalist’s ears, but to consumers, it’s like getting 100 pieces of corn stuck in our teeth.
- Endangered Species Act Endangering Us All
Just last year, nearly two million acres of land were set aside in California as a refuge for three species of tiny frogs and toads. For perspective, this is a plot of land almost three times the size of Rhode Island, and it’s now off limits to farmers, ranchers and loggers by order of the federal government to preserve this frog/toad habitat. This is just one of many outlandish land grabs endorsed by our government and courts in the name of environmental preservation, but in reality puts tremendous regulatory and compliance burdens on rural landowners to the point where many may lose their businesses. Many people remember the famous spotted owl case from the 80s, where Oregon timber was put off limits where the owl made its habitat. As it turned out, the owl was able to thrive outside of the federal preservation, proving again that government is terrible at land management. What’s worse is that taxpayers foot the bill for the lawyers encouraged to sue the government to protect designated species, to the tune of $400 an hour and up. The excesses of the ESA are alive and well, and continue to be quite lucrative for the environmental groups who are paid well to stop businesses in their tracks.
- Wetlands Wackos
Under the Clean Water Act of 1972, the EPA was given broad powers to regulate pollutants in water, and regulate the water supply as it relates to the public. Admirable on its surface, instead this law has been converted into a battering ram of regulatory abuse by power hungry federal regulators, able to condemn or control millions of acres of personal property under the claim of protecting clean water. This power has virtually no limits. Numerous cases have arisen of farmers, land developers and private property owners stopped in their tracks because the EPA deemed a temporary collection of water as a “wetland.” Even a pothole filled with rain water, if within 4,000 feet of a tributary, is enough to deprive property owners of their planned land use. Suing the government to fight this abuse is extremely costly, and has bankrupted more than a few defendants. One piece of good news is that this year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the EPA could not shelter its more stringent rules from judicial review, giving landowners at least some leverage in banding together to fight back. A better solution is to cut the budget of the property police and work to stop their reckless and unconstitutional violation of our property rights.
- National Lab Rats
The U.S. spends about $12 billion annually through the Department of Energy on 17 national laboratories to conduct innovative research on energy, science and weapons technology. Much of this research eventually makes its way to market to the benefit of our citizens. The labs were established to function independently, but thanks to meddling from politicians with an environmental agenda, much of that funding is steered toward less useful research that provides diminished benefit to U.S. taxpayers. While research grants helped develop energy technologies such as horizontal drilling that provide cleaner energy options and significant economic benefit, in fact the bulk of energy research funds are steered toward less promising renewable energy technologies. Further, regulators have limited peer conferences where scientists can exchange ideas, unless they are for an “approved” purpose, tantamount to a gag-rule on our best and brightest minds. With a leftist agenda driving America’s energy and science research, it is no wonder that the Trump administration has proposed funding cuts to the labs, a sad state of affairs in what should be a shared national mission to keep our nation as the leading science innovator in the world. The commandeering of our crucial national labs by the environmental Gestapo is truly an unsettling prospect. If left unchecked, it could do lasting damage to our nation’s ability to innovate, leaving us trailing industrialized nations operating without this environmental handicap.
- Sue Here, Sue Now: Liberal Mayors Sue Oil Companies for “Climate Change”
After years of failed attempts to sue the oil companies for contributing to the alleged (and future) damage from “climate change,” the liberal extremists are at it again. This time it’s the mayors of New York city, San Francisco and Oakland, along with a handful of coastal counties, bringing suit against the largest oil companies, seeking damage awards in the billions. As CASE has pointed out, the one common denominator among these cities is that they are all deeply in debt, poorly run and mismanaged. What better way to absolve their cities from decades of poor financial planning than to sue profitable oil companies? In the end, it would be consumers and taxpayers footing this bailout if it were to succeed, as we would pay more not only in energy costs, but in nearly all the products that require petroleum to make, package and ship. Hopefully as in the past, the courts will find the suits without merit, not only because oil is a critical product required in nearly every item we use and depend on, but most importantly because there is no scientific consensus on what climate change is, what causes it, or its degree or duration. But facts don’t matter to the left, playing to their far-left anti-business voters, they charge on blindly, seeking to make all of us pay uncountable billions to bail out their declining cities.
- Up on a Roof: Solar Mandates Come to Florida
One thing that makes America great is the free market, where individuals (typically) have the right to make the choices and purchases that suit their own individual needs. That’s no longer the case in South Miami, where the town has passed an ordinance mandating that ALL new construction and renovations be fitted with solar panels as their source for electricity. Of course, government knows best, so they’ll be doing all the deciding around here. Amazingly the city passed this without a thorough economic analysis on how this would impact consumers or city finances. A typical home in the area could see an additional $25,000 in building costs due to the mandate, a rough ticket to pay for first-time home buyers, or people rebuilding after one of Florida’s infamous hurricanes. CASE will keep a close eye on this government dictate, which in almost every case leaves consumers worse off than leaving buying choices to the free market. When other liberal cities take notice of South Miami, this bad idea is sure to spread.
- Eco-Terrorism
Given the extreme elements of the environmental agenda, it is no wonder that its ranks are filled with blind fanatics, who wouldn’t recognize reasonable behavior if it drove across their toes in a four-wheeler. Sadly many of these people are lost and confused youth, in search of a cause to give them purpose. But in many instances these fanatics can be downright dangerous, and engage in tactics that destroy property or threaten lives, all in the name of “environmental progress.” These eco-terrorists, are, in a word, deranged, putting their vision of conservation above the value of human life. Some tactics include “spiking” trees with metal rods, so when loggers or saw mills attempt to cut the timber their equipment is damaged. In fact spiking trees is known to cause serious injury to the loggers doing manual labor for an honest living. Recently we’ve seen a spate of attacks on pipelines, from environmental activists shutting off valves to one even shooting a pipeline with a gun. One jailed activist recently claimed she “feared climate change more than jail.” With the media and activists continuing to fear-monger on environmental issues, we’ll unfortunately continue to see activists stoop to dangerous means to further their radical environmental beliefs.
