"The EPA is a pissed off tough kid on the playground who won’t cowboy up and take on a real bully."
Most people who know me know I’m a pretty ‘green’ kind of guy. I’m a huge proponent of sustainable architecture and design, electric vehicles, alternative energy sources, easy recycling (and can/bottle deposits to promote it!), buying local food to cut down on vehicle emissions, cutting back on throw-away conveniences (i.e. paper plates, paper towels, disposable diapers, etc...), the list could go on-and-on. I don’t like pollution or wastefulness. In short, I’m an environmental kind of guy.
So, one would assume that as far as government organizations go, the EPA is one I would get behind. And in most cases, I do.
This link goes to the EPA mission statement: EPA Mission
These are all ideas I can get behind. I think there are people and organizations out there that would be more than happy to ravage the environment and potentially cause harm to people near the facilities to save a few bucks and turn a huge profit.
There are people who have no problem dumping hazardous chemicals into drinking water sources. No problem pumping noxious gasses over rural farmland and thus, into the people’s food sources. Those people and those companies need to be held accountable and forced to make amends to anyone they’ve harmed by their actions.
But we have a system of laws and loopholes. The companies who are really doing the damage have the money to ‘support’ lawmakers who make the laws just lenient enough to keep the big polluters out of trouble. And when the polluters step over the boundaries, they have the money to pay lawyers to keep them out of trouble.
The EPA needs to justify its existence by shutting down and putting away polluters. Which I applaud. I would love to see the people responsible for the BP oil spill marched into court and sentenced to a few years behind bars and fined millions of dollars. But that won’t happen. Because they have a lot of money to pay lawyers and a lot of money ‘invested’ in the right politicians.
Which brings me to my point, the situation with my dad. (Here's a link to the story for anyone who doesn't know: Bryan's Story)
Why is the EPA going after my dad? Nothing was actually polluted, just improperly stored. There’s all kinds of evidence on public record (i.e. the bankruptcy documents) showing that he forfeited his assets and building to the bank? Why are they going after my dad when he tried to get the bank to release the chemicals to him, and the bank refused even though they still considered him the owner?
This stuff was the bank’s responsibility. They knew about it, acknowledged it and ignored it. They left the stuff in my dad’s name and didn’t bother to tell him. But the EPA is ruthlessly going after my dad, not the bank.
Why?
Well, I can’t speak for any representative of the EPA. I don’t have any secret memos or voice recordings. I haven’t sat in on any of the meetings pertaining to this ‘case.’ But the way I see it, the bank has money and lawyers. The EPA could go after them. They might even get some fines paid. But it would never make it to court. No one would be made an example of.
Banks can afford fines and make settlements out of court. My dad can’t. So why go after my dad? Because the EPA is a pissed off tough kid on the playground who won’t cowboy up and take on a real bully so he can make a difference. Instead he’s going to become a bully himself by finding a weak kid who looks like a bully so he can pummel that kid and tell everyone else he’s making the playground safe from bullies. In the end, they’re just going after the guy least able to defend himself.
It’s not because the people in the organization don’t care or because they’re evil. It’s because they want a win but they're only willing to get it by bullying the weaker guy, not by going after a formidable opponent.
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