Possible new Head of EPA
News From Previous Year

Summarised from an article by James Delingpole.

The shortlist for the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is down to 2 candidates. Donald Trump's candidate is Don van der Vaart. Unusually for a head of EPA he is qualified in science.

Since Richard Nixon founded the EPA in 1970 the organisation has been run by people who have done little to help the environment, but plenty to burden the economy, consumers and businesses with additional regulations.

Its first Administrator was William Ruckelshaus, a lawyer. He was responsible for instituting the America-wide ban on DDT. He did this with little regard for the science. Judge Edmund Sweeney had presided over a seven-month EPA hearing, examining 9,000 pages of expert testimony, and concluded that DDT is not a carcinogenic hazard to man, not mutagenic or teratogenic to man. The use of DDT under the regulations involved did not have a bad effect on freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds or other wildlife.

Ruckelshaus, who had not attended the hearings or read the report, overruled him. The knock-on effects of the near worldwide ban which followed meant that DDT could no longer be used to control mosquitos. This led to an explosion in malaria, causing the death of millions.

Subsequently Ruckelshaus endorsed Barack Obama for U.S. president in 2008; and most recently headed the Washington Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification, another unsubstantiated theory designed to support Obama's anti-CO2 agenda.

Probably the worst EPA heads were Obama’s appointments. First was Lisa Jackson, who employed a highly politicized approach to decision-making resulting in suppression of scientific information, issuance of gag orders and threats against professional staff members who dared to voice concerns. There were 17,000 employees under her.

Jackson’s stint at the EPA, in which she helped to cripple the U.S. coal industry, delay the Keystone Pipeline and have carbon dioxide branded as an environmental hazard, only came to an end after a scandal in which she was found to have been using an illegal separate email account in order to elude Freedom of Information regulations.

After Jackson came Gina McCarthy. She was chosen for her political correctness and belief in man-made climate change rather than any scientific expertise. On her watch, the water at Flint, Michigan was contaminated with lead. An EPA senior official, whom she had supervised, was charged with stealing approximately $900,000 of government funds. The expensive and ineffective Clean Power Plan was also introduced.

The EPA is funded by the US taxpayer to the tune of $8.2 billion a year, but it has been estimated to cost the US economy another $350 billion a year in terms of unnecessary regulations.

Don van der Vaart is currently Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering. He has no time for environmental political correctness, and his outspoken skepticism about the potential of wind energy and solar power is a breath of fresh air. He understands that while it’s important to have a clean environment, the people who live in it matter too. He said recently that the environment must be protected whilst keeping energy affordable. Energy prices are absolutely fundamental for developing good paying jobs and as a weapon against poverty.



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