From: hotrod@dixie.com (The Hotrod List)
Subject: EPA and Fuel
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 19:18:52 GMT
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.
To: hotrod@dixie.com
Reply-To: hotrod@dixie.com
Posted-Date: Sunday, Jan 10 14:18:49
X-Sequence: 3336
X-Gifs-To: met@sunset.cse.nau.edu
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->         In case you don't know, Clinton will elevate the EPA, now an
->         independent Agency, to a Cabinet level Department (as Bush,
->         our "environmental" President promised).  Portions of other
->         independent Agencies and Departments will either merge into
->         the EPA, or disappear.

 This has very little to do with the hotrod list's charter, but I hope
John will be lenient.

[No problem.  I felt this important enough to pass through since Dave
is our resident Arkansan.  While most of us thought Bush was about
as bad a President as we can remember, I think we're going to pay
a very heavy price for voting for one worse.  I expect to see no 
substance and much symbolic actions that do nothing good but hurt 
a lot of people.  I'll not be surprised to see some kind of ban on
old cars.  Detroit wants it, UAW wants it and it'll make Billy-Bob
and the Ozone Boob look sufficiently econazish.  I believe strongly
enough in this that I've invested considerable money to start a 
demonstration project for bringing an old car (my 68 Plymouth) 
into substantial compliance with modern emission laws.  The old
saying, those who forget history are doomed to relive it never
applied more here.  Many people who voted for Clinton were children
during the last Democratic admin.  I have a long memory for bad 
things.  I vividly remember just how bad it was under the Georgia
White Trash.  24% interest, 12% inflation, Malaise of the spirit...
Carter will look like a bumbling saint after slick Willie shows 
him how to do it...

To be fair, if someone really wants to write a rebuttal, I'll pass
through ONE well-reasoned reply.  JGD]

 I *live* in a Federal disaster area.  Jacksonville, Arkansas.  A
succession of chemical companies have been dumping dioxin, 2,4,5-T, and
other toxic waste into the local water table since the early 1960s.
The small-town politics that allowed this to go on should be obvious.
When the toxic level finally got so high that even the EPA noticed, the
city reluctantly started a cleanup program.  A series of fines and
penalties were to be levied on Vertac, to pay for basically stripping
hundreds of acres of land to bedrock and shipping the contaminated soil
to Pine Bluff, where the Arkansas Army National Guard has a nerve-gas
disposal facility adequate to handle the problem.

 In his capacity as governor, Clinton stepped in, prohibited the NG from
disposing of the stuff, pardoned Vertac and its major stockholders, and
prohibited cleanup.  Then he went to DC and tried to beg money from the
EPA's Superfund program, complete with pictures of babies with birth
defects, medical records showing sky-high cancer and assorted medical
problem rates, and photos of areas where the poison had killed off trees
and ground cover.  The EPA quite rightly told him to piss off, as the
problem was well within the means of the locals to control.  The
Superfund was for emergencies or areas where there was no practical
local way to deal with the problem.

 Rather than permitting the city to resume its cleanup, Clinton
evidently decided if he couldn't have it his way, nobody would have it
any way at all.  It took another five years before he could fiddle
various other EPA funds, little of which benefitted Jacksonville.

 THAT is "Dollar Billy" Clinton.  Now he's in a position to make the EPA
kiss HIS posterior.  Meanwhile, we're still up to our asses in toxic
waste, and Clinton's pretending to be an enviro-Nazi.  Too bad the
proletariat voted for a 1960 suit and a JFK haircut without checking his
record.
                                                  

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Posted by: emory!chaos.lrk.ar.us!dave.williams (Dave Williams)
Newsgroups: alt.hotrod,wiz.hotrod