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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (336111)	11/28/2009 9:59:14 AM
From: DMaA	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793966

I've read people criticize the idea that DDT was decimating the raptor population but I've seen no alternative explanation for their remarkable come back (especially Bald Eagles) after we stopped using it.

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (336111)	11/28/2009 12:43:38 PM
From: ManyMoose	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793966

Yes, I agree that we needed the environmental laws that we got in the 70s. There's a creek I drive by in Idaho that used to be called Shit Creek because of the effluent from the mines that were dumping into it. Now it's free and clear, although I don't think I would eat the fish from it. The forests around the smelter were exterminated, and are only now coming back. The same with the Clark's Fork in Montana. It's now fishable right in town. I worked with NEPA for many years, and it had a good effect on what we did. The problem is that environmental groups use it to gratuitously sue every lawful project out there whether or not there was a defect in the proposal. For example, in a case I worked on the environmental suit said in effect "This proposal is defective because you didn't do it like X Ranger District does theirs, which is very satisfactory to us." Well as a matter of fact, we at X Ranger District developed the method that they liked so much and it was X Ranger District that proposed the project they were filing on, and X Ranger District had followed the method that they liked. They simply did not read the document they were filing on, and used a word processor to copy and paste their boilerplate from other gratuitous lawsuits they had filed. NEPA has been drug into the legal system so badly that it's a major profit center for lawyers. I think it's lost its bearings, but there's a huge organizational structure supporting it now, and that's very difficult to cope with. I reviewed hundreds of environmental appeals and not one of them had any substance at all. The reason for it was the agency had learned its lesson in the 70s and was operating the way it should. The environmentalists learned a different lesson: that it was fun and profitable to interfere with the process they helped create. Industry in my field learned still another lesson: That they had crapped in their own nest by pushing for unsustainable procedures.