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Jewish World Review Sept. 15, 2005 / 11 Elul, 5765 The Sierra Club: The fox guards the henhouse? By Bob Tyrrell
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
How the gods do play upon the poor soul who is
known to us all as Al Gore. On the day Boy Clinton was impeached they sent
him out on the White House lawn to laud The Groper as "one of our greatest
presidents." In Campaign 2000, they cast him as the Poor Loser. Ever since
he has been wandering the land looking for a friend and intoning
preposterosities even more absurd than when he wrote his green classic,
"Earth in the Balance." There he predicted that all the automobiles in
America would soon be parked curbside while Americans squeezed into public
transportation and enjoyed the ride. Now he champions the windmill over
fossil fuel, no matter how many whooping cranes are slaughtered by the
whirling blades. He is Don Quixote turned upside down.
What did the rude gods do to him this time? They forced him to
cancel a speech scheduled for New Orleans where he planned to blame global
warming for the hurricane season. You can be sure that when Hurricane
Katrina scotched his appearance in New Orleans, Al, ever the opportunist,
saw this idiotic speech as a splendid opportunity to summon the attention of
the nation. Of a sudden Al would be the man of the moment. He might yet
become president — a Green in the White House.
So where did Al choose to deliver this critical compendium of
misjudgments, hyperbole and error? On Sept. 9 he spoke in San Francisco,
where he said "The warnings about global warming have been extremely clear
for a long time. We are facing a global climate crisis. It is deepening. We
are entering a period of consequences." And he urged that "the leaders of
our country be held accountable" for the flooding of New Orleans.
Unfortunately he was addressing the Sierra Club, which was not the best
place to bring up the flooding of New Orleans.
The very day he spoke a congressional task force reported that
the levees that failed in New Orleans would have been raised higher and
strengthened in 1996 by the Army Corps of Engineers were it not for a
lawsuit filed by environmentalists led by who else but the Sierra Club.
Among those "leaders of our country" to "be held accountable" for the
flooding of New Orleans, would Al include the Sierra Club? How about the
Save the Wetlands stalwarts? According to a recent report in the Los Angeles
Times, a 1977 lawsuit filed by Save the Wetlands stopped a
congressionally-funded plan to protect New Orleans with a "massive hurricane
barrier." A judge found that New Orleans' hurricane barrier would have to
wait until the Army Corps of Engineers filed a better environmental-impact
statement.
Now, because those who would have improved hurricane protection
in New Orleans were prevented by the environmentalist rigorists, the
wetlands are polluted and imperiled and New Orleans has suffered the damage
that practical minds have been trying to prevent for three decades. What has
thwarted them are the Al Gores of the environmental movement and a
well-intentioned piece of legislation that has become a major stumbling
block to improving the nation's infrastructure and energy production, the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA). The legislation might have
been sensible at the time but it has grown like a bureaucratic cancer.
Environmentalist lawyers have expanded its reach until it now entoils
practically any construction done by the federal government in red tape that
stops projects large and small, some mere pork barrel expense, some critical
to the safety of the citizenry.
The congressional task force that exposed the Sierra Club's
mischief in New Orleans was convened in April to study the costs of NEPA and
suggest means to reform it. Doubtless members of the task force — it
includes 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats — will find some valuable
contributions to the environment that it has made. But the task force and
Hurricane Katrina have already revealed that it is in need of serious
reform. For too long environmentalist fanatics with no sense of a
broad-based commonweal have had a veto over government projects and projects
in the private sector that are essential to the health and well-being of
millions of Americans. Cost-benefit analyses and free-market treatment of
pollution are but two alternatives the task force should consider over the
decades-long environmental policy of "just say no."
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JWR contributor Bob Tyrrell is editor in chief of The American Spectator. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Creators Syndicate |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
