Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Dave
Literally tens of millions of US jobs have been chased offshore because of enviro-regs,
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(Gets up on soapbox)
If you have a solution to dealing with hazardous wastes and chemicals that doesn't cost money I'm sure industry would love to talk to you.
In the late '60s my mom worked in a factory that made mercury vapor lamps. At the end of the day they would sweep up all the loose mercury and flush it down the sink, into the sewer, and out into the Merrimac river. The same river that used to run red from the blood from the meat packing plant. Other times it would run blue or green when they dumped the dyes from the fabric factories. Ah, the good old days.
Now you can actually eat the fish you catch from the river. Because now there ARE fish in the river.
Yes, lots of those jobs left to go overseas, but they weren't great jobs. Those same buildings are now occupied by high tech companies. The lamp plant is still there but they dispose of their haz waste properly and pretreat the wastewater.
In 1959 my family moved from NH to California. My dad drove a bus in L.A. He always told us about his favorite route that ran up into some hills east of the city near UCLA. There was a turnaround that overlooked the city and he almost always saw a blanket of smog with a few tall buildings sticking through it. In 1998 my parents drove all through the western states and visited California and my dad drove up to that turnaround and was amazed. He never knew you could see the Pacific Ocean from there.
I'm willing to pay more for a car if it means that things will continue to get better.
The EPA is far from perfect, (it IS a government agency after all) but they have a constant fight against attitudes like yours.
(Steps down from soapbox)